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UNIVERSITY OF
ILLINOIS LIBRARY
AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
ICLfNOlS HISTORICAL SURVEY
3(^^,1 .'op. Uk^-^^z ^'
!
Complete History of Southern
Illinois' Gang War.
The True Story of Southern Illinois Gang War-
fare. Written Entirely by E. Bishop Hill
*WE DARE YOU TO READ
THE FIRST FIVE PAGES.'
All that is written herein is actual facts that hap-
pened during the Ku Klux Klan and Anti-Klan War in
: ..Little Egypt and during the time of S. Glenn Young
}> to the trial of Charles Birger in the year 1927 A. D.
This material is carefully compiled and is given
in print so the public in general may know in full the
details surrounding that terrible period of bloodshed
in "Bloody Williamson" from the Herrin Massacre to
the end of the reign of "Machine Gun Charlie" Birger.
E. BISHOP HILL,
Eldorado, Illinois.
' CHAPTER 1.
S. GLENN YOUNG, Raider.
There is hardly a nook or corner of the entire
United States where the name of S. Glenn Young is
not known.
Many are the tales told of marvelous gun plays,
and his ability to always come out with a new notch
on his gun. There is hardly a household the country
over wiiere stories have not been told of his deeds of
aaring. His ability to draw first has been illustrated,
mayLe magnified, by many hundreds of verified and
unveriiied stories.
Ever since S. Glenn Young made his advent in
Williamson County, Illinois, there has hardly been a
gathering of any sort w^here his activities did not
iurnish the chief topic of conversation. Each time
the- name was mentioned some one always had a new
story to tell of som.ething he had said or done.
One interesting story comes to mind regarding the
raider's ability to draw his gun first. It is told that
one time while the City of Herrin, Illinois, was re-
covering from the shock of an outbreak, during which
the state troops were called out that Young was walk-
ing down the street, clad in common civilian clothes.
There was nothing about his appearance that would
lead one to believe he carried any of the traditional
artillery that has made him famous. One of the
guardsmen met and asked him if he did not feel a bit
uneasy, going about the streets, among enemies, un-
arme:!.
"Start for your gun, sonny," the raider said, and
the guardsman reached quickly for his gun. Before
2
the soldicrr could bring the weapon from its liolster at
his side Young had him covered with two guns.
And such were the stories of the life of S. Glenn
Young until the time he "bit the dust" as he had seen
so many do who had failed to beat him to the draw.
The writer knows Young to have been a fearless
man and one who could draw a gun in the time it
would take one to wink an eye.
S. Glenn Young to his admirers was a dauntless
crusader who feared neither man nor the devil in
fighting sin such as he found it in and around Herrin.
To those who hated him, he was a swashbuckling inter-
loper whose own violences were greater than the crimes
he attempted to correct.
Chapter 2 Deals with the Manner in Which Young
Came Into Prominence By His Daring Work in
the Employment of the Government.
CHAPTER 2.
Glenn Young came into prominence in 1917 when
he was employed in running down desperate draft
evaders for the Federal government, his work taking
him into the most dangerous districts of the Kentuc'.iy
foothills. He is credited with capturing hundreds of
desperate characters, and many was the time he used
his gun and shot to kill in carrying out the orders of
nis superiors.
After the war he was given a place on the Federal
prohibition enforcement forces, and again he was as-
signed to one of the most dangerous districts in the
country. For some two years he kept up his warfare
3
on illicit liquor, and up until he was dismissed, when
he was charged with the murder of a foreigner whose
home he raided near East St. Louis, he was feared by
law-breakers in an almost unimaginable way.
Following this Young dropped out of prominence
until the time he was employed by the Ku Klux Klan
to conduct the raids in Williamson county. He started
his work there in January, 1924, and ever since there
has been a vendetta that has been a sensation to all
America.
The writer will say here, that the Klan-Anti Klan
warfare was a war between two factions, one taking
the name of the Klan and the other Anti-Klan so they
were distinguishable.
The Klan forces had the enmity of Sheriff George
Galligan of Williamson county and former State's At-
torney Delos Duty from the start of their raiding
activities, and it was between these two factions, the
constituted authorities on one side and the citizens
who wanted a cleanup of vice on the other, that the
relentless warfare was carried on.
One of the regrettable occurrences in connection
v/ith the whole affair, outside the actual killings that
took place from day to day, was when the automobile
driven by Young was fired upon by members of the
anti-Klan forces as it passed through the Okaw bot-
toms near Belleville, Illinois, and Mrs. Young who was
accompanying her husband, was wounded for life.
It is said that there are nearly thirty notches on
Young's gun, indicating that he has killed that many
persons.
Ora Thomas was the greatest enemy Young ever
v/as known to have had. Thomas was appointed as a
4
CHARLIE BIRQER
deputy sheriff under Sheriff Galligan and had been
one of Young's most bitter foes since the noted raider
entered Williamson county.
Ora Thomas first came into prominence when he
was made one of the principal defendants in the Herrin
mine war suits, he having been charged with having
taken a leading part in the wholesale killings of the
men employed at the Lester strip mine. A jury, how-
ever, exonerated him of these charges. Thomas was
always prominently mentioned in all the encounters
between the sheriffs forces and Young's raiders since
the advent of the notorious raiding forces in William-
son county.
Chapter 3 Deals with the Death of S. Glenn Young.
Much was Kept Hidden But the Main Details are
Given in the Description Following.
CHAPTER 3.
On the night of January 24, 1925, people all over
the United States talked of the terrible war then
going on in Williamson county and on that night one
of the most terrible battles was fought in the main
street of Herrin. The fight in which S. Glenn Young
died was incomparable to the fights told in story
books of the wild west and the frontier.
It was near 10 o'clock on that fatal night and
the war of the Klan and its enemies had been going
on about a year. S. Glenn Young and two of his hench-
men, Ed Forbes and Homer Warren, and Ora Thomas,
a Williamson county deputy sheriff, were killed.
The shooting which was in the form of a free-for-
all gun battle, took place in front of the European
5
moaj s:^ot[s ;saij aq; »ie;jB uoos pacldoap Jounoj^
•pai^B:|.s aaA{0A8a Di:j.tiUiOT.ii^
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8q4 UI a^oq aq; qSnoaq:^ s>[Baj;s ui Sui^jnds aJij aq;
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}0 paads aq:^ q^i^v a^iij aq:^ pauani^aj japi^j sroijot
-ou aqjL 'Sunoj^ Aq pa{ shav qoiqM pAVoao Suiduha^.t?
aq; '\T8 Suuij UBSaq puB sunS oa\:^ Avajp ay 'pus^s
aBgp B puiqaq aSnjaa j[Oo:^ pun ia;oq aq; o:^ui uisi
sBuioqj^ :^aaj:^s aq:^ passojo uaiu siq puB Suno^ sy
•p^ap SHA\
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sy^oojq om; auios ia;oH UBadoJng; aq; jo ;uojj ui Sm
-puB;s SBAV SBUioqx sb ja^^i sa;nuim i^;Jiq; ;noqy
•aouajjnooo uouiuiod ts st?a\ uaq;
puB A\ou ;oqs Xbj;s y 'punoj un.§ aq; q;iAi ubui aq;
SBA\ jou {p^ oti 3^00; ;oqs aq; pun '-m -d o^' 6 ^noq^
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puB ;jno3 i^;!^ uujajj aq; jo uoissas ;qSm ^ guiA^a^
ajaAv sjaq;o puB uaMog 'jsi '3 aSpnf 's^uioqx ^JQ
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uoi;isod ;saq aq; ui asoq; puB ;no uaAiS a.iaAV saiJo;s Sm
-^;oi{juoD AiiTSUi ;Bq; ajaq uoi;uaui {{ia\ ja;iJM aqx
•iniq joj pa;oajip
uaaq p^q ;qgnoq; aq ;Bq; pajij uaaq p^q ;oqs b Ja;jH
a?npj ua^Tt?; aA^q o; piBs si SBiuoqx ^-^0 ^^i^qA^^ P^^H
6
Thomas' gun barked from behind the cigar stand.
Two shots had struck him in the right side, causing
almost instant death. Thomas also fell.
Warner and Forbes dropped in turn, althou^^h the
former was not killed instantly. He died a few hours
later in the Herrin Hospital. Forbes' death was in-
stant.
Ora Thomas had been shot three times through
the head, the three bullet holes through his skull not
being more than an inch apart.
Things went on peaceful in Herrin for a few
hours following the battle. Then as the news
spread and crowds began pouring into the city from
surrounding cities, there was every indication of a re-
newal of the disorder.
Klansmen and others soon filled the streets and many
who came into the city were searched for weapons for
fear they might be part of an avenging force that
would start a new war. Feeling was again at fever
heat and the business of keeping a closed mouth and
going one's way seemed to be the most sensible thing
to do.
So great was this feeling of bitterness that it was
thought necessary to ask for state troops and the
Headquarters Company at Carbondale was soon on
its w^ay to again restore peace and quiet in the neigh-
boring city. This made the third time within a period
of twelve months that this company had been called
for duty in Herrin.
S. Glenn Young died almost instantly, but in the
short time he lived before bridging the gap into Eter-
nity, he asked if Ora Thomas was dead. Those around
him said that Thomas had died. The famous raider
gasped, grinned, and as he died said: "I die in peace."
7
Ora Thomas was supported by friends on the floor
of the European Hotel. Life had been sweet to him
and he knew it was leaving him rapidly and that the
end was near. With an almost super-human effort
he said: "Did I get Young?" When he was assured
that S. Glenn Young had passed into the great beyond,
he said: *'I am willing to die." The two men known
for thousands of miles as the most bitter of foes, died
at almost the same moment and was happy that the
other was dead. Their oaths were fulfilled. Thus
passed another epic or drama in the life of the people
of southern Illinois.
Ora Thomas was buried with much pomp by his
many friends and great was the ceremony for the
fallen deputy sheriff but it was incomparable to that
of S. Glenn Young. Thousands of people from miles
away came for one glimpse at the famous raider or
for a peep at his tomb in the Herrin cemetery. Not
until the end of the world will the scene of the funeral
of S. Glenn Young fade from history. Neither will the
deeds of this man be forgotten. Nor will the war
which was carried on by this man be forgotten.
In cities many miles away people who took no
side in the affair expressed their opinions and many
believed that the warfare was over. Yet it grew in
proportion and the name of Herrin and Williamson
county was heard in foreign countries.
Charter 4 Dea]s with Sheriff Galligan and Happenings
in Williamson County.
CHAPTER 4.
February 8th and 9th, Friday and Saturday, 1924,
8
were busy days for officers in both Herrin and Marion,
Williamson County, Illinois.
On Friday evening at 6:30 o*clock persons living
in towns around Herrin who had been there on busi-
ness reported everything quiet. But the Herrin of
three hours later was a city of lurking death and mur-
der. Crowds stormed down through the business dis-
trict and pistol shots, some scattered and some in vol-
ume were heard from every precinct.
The cold-blooded shooting of Ceasar Cagle, a con-
stable and justice of the peace of Herrin, was the be-
ginning of the fracas which resulted in the entire
county being practically under military restriction.
Cagle had played an important part in the raids
made in the county under the leadership of S. Glenn
Young, had incurred the enmity of a number of men
who had suffered arrest as a result of warrants being
served out of Cagle's office. These men, it seems
planned to *'get" Cagle and dispatched the dead man's
son to the Masonic Temple at Herrin to inform his
father that he was wanted on important business at
the Jefferson Hotel.
Cagle started down the street and had proceeded
as far as a corner near the Jefferson Hotel when he
was struck down by a man who had been hiding in
the shadows. Several persons said they saw a bunch
of men fire shots into Cagle's body, killing him in-
stantly. Immediately following the death of Cagle
warrants were issued for George Galligan, sheriff,
Ora Thomas, deputy sheriff, Hugh Willis, United
Mine Workers' official, John Layman, deputy sheriff
and several others.
Chief of Police John Ford, of Herrin, together
with several other officers set out to arrest the men
9
for whom the warrants were issued. It was reported
at the time that the men had taken refuge in the Her-
rin hospital. A Dr. Black was said to have taken the
men in and when officers demanded they be admitted
a fusillade of shots greeted them. The fire was return-
ed by the officers and the windows were shot out of
the hospital. The patients were said to have suffered
m.uch from the smoke and excitement. The officers
drew away from the hospital without making any
arrests.
The officers then went to a club hall and when
they were refused admittance started a fight and John
Layman, deputy sheriff, was shot. The Herrin police
officers were later taken to a Perry county jail as a
result of the shooting at the club house. S. Glenn
Young assumed charge of police activities in Herrin
then because Chief of Police John Ford was one of the
men locked in the Perry county jail.
When the uniformed soldiers stepped off the train
in Kerrin citizens breathed a sigh of relief as wild
reports about the Flaming Circle, Ku Klux Klan and
raids on homes where liquor was stored were con-
current.
S. Glenn Young made the remark at that time that
eye-witnesses said Ora Thomas and John Layman
killed Cagle.
Sheriff George Galligan w^as arrested the next
day and held on a charge of being an accessory to the
murder of Ceaser Cagle. He was lodged in jail but
was soon released.
At this time cities in Williamson county organized
corps of men armed with machine guns and rifles to
help preserve order.
At this time, the 12th of February, 1924, a man
10
ch?a'ged with complicitj^ with the murder of Ceasar
Cagle was reported to be on the jury at the coroner's
inquest into Cagle's death. No one was held following
the inquest.
Chapter 5 Deals with Peaceful Herrin and the Sheriff
Who Took the Place of Galligan.
ALSO LESTER STRIP MINE MASSACRE.
CHAPTER 5.
In December, 1925, Herrin stood a purged cit}/.
Evangelist Howard S. Williams had just finished his
campaign. He had preached of brotherly love. Where
men had used pistols before, they now used Bibles.
Weapons were traded for working tools and books
such as h>Tnn books and Bibles.
There were two outstanding reasons for peace
coming to Herrin. One was the death of S. Glenn
Young and the other the religious revival held in June
1925 by Howard S. Williams. Of course, the death
of Ora Thomas aided in bringing peace but not as that
of Young. Young, in dying, did what he could not do
when he was living.
After the death of Young and Thomas, although a
nominal truce was declared, the old enmities snarled at
each other, more to keep up appearances than because
they really hated. And then came the Williams revival.
For six weeks he thrust the picture of peace and har-
mony before his hearers. Men and women of all
creeds came to hear him. There were a few conver-
sions and then the idea permeated that there on the
mourner's bench was the place to lay down all the
bitterness of the past. Those who had hated, or
11
thought they had hated, sought mutual refuge in re-
ligion. One confessed the error of his ways and others
followed. In short, the revival offered the solution of
the whole problem. With all confessing their guilt
there could be no loss of pride to anyone — and so in
the Williams tabernacle was reared again the substant-
ial structure of good citizenship that promises to re-
main to the end of time.
No attempt is made by anyone to belittle the ef-
forts of the evangelist. He was the medium through
v.'hich too much good was accomplished for anyone to
say that it was not his powers of eloquence but the
opportuneness of his visit that led to such far-reaching
results. He will always be kindly remembered in
Herrin, especially that dramatic night when he in-
duced Sheriff George Galligan, arch enemy of the
klansmen, to ride boldly into Herrin and sit on the
platform surrounded by hundreds of men who had
sworn to kill him on sight. Indeed the situation was a
dramatic one. Hundreds were converted that memor-
able night and thus passed the Ku Klux Klan warfare
in Herrin. Southern Illinois again came to light in
the news columns when Charlie Birger's gang and the
Shelton brothers gang became enemies after being
friends and fighting side by side in the Klan war.
They were enemies of the Klan together and gambled,
raided and killed for a living. Bootlegging was their
main occupation for several years in southern Illinois.
The havoc they wrought is even greater than the Klan
v.^ar or the Lester strip mine massacre which is de-
scribed in the following paragraph.
Over a score of men were killed in July near Her-
rin at the Lester strip mine in the year of 1922. When
the mine? in general closed as a result of a strike
12
^^
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■4
!-«»
ART NEWMAN
niiiiiiiiilt* .^
union miners continued to work on condition that no
coal be shipped away from the mine. When coal wa^
shipped from the mine the union men quit and '*scab"
miners were brought in from all parts of the country.
They were men who roamed about looking for any-
thing to do where they could pick up money in an easy
way. A large number of guards were placed around
the mine while the miners worked, and for a time al
went well.
One morning some union miners started toward
the mine and the superintendent of the mine is said
to have picked up a rifle and killed one of the leading
men. The union miners then left. Before this all
kinds of trouble had been stirred up and many out-
rageous acts had been committed by both sides. After
the killing at the mine a crowd of men, armed to the
teeth, set out to the mine, ran some of the guards away,
killed some of them, and caught about 22 or 23 men.
These prisoners they took away and slaughtered as if
they had been sheep. Several trials were held follow-
ing that but no one was convicted of anything as every
witness swore that the defendant could not have been
near the mine that day as he saw him some where else.
The officers of Williamson county were then elected
upon the strength of their promises to defend the
union men. Taking advantage of promises many men
started bootlegging and running road houses knowing
they would not be harmed. Then came the Ku Klux
and the terrible war which ended with the death of
Young and Thomas and the revival of Howard S. Wil-
liams. All was then quiet in southern Illinois until
the rival gangs of Cahrlie Birger and the Shelton
brothers got busy.
13
Chapter 6 Deals with the Early Life of Charlie Blrger.
His First Killing.
CHAPTER 6.
Charlie Birger was born in Russia in 1882, and
immigrated with his family when but a child to Amer-
ica where the Birger family settled in St. Louis. While
Birger was still a small boy, the family moved from St.
Louis to Harrisburg, Illinois, where Birger grew up.
At one time during his youth he lived in Hell's Half
Acre, New York City, and there learned the life of the
underworld. He also spent much time in East St.
Louis, Illinois, when a boy, it is said. He escaped the
bloodshed of red Russia which was unrivaled for its
bloodshed but he did his part in spreading the tinge of
red over southern Illinois and personally caused the
taking of many lives and the shedding of much blood.
Before reaching manhood, young Birger manifest-
ed, an interest in adventure and enlisted in the United
States Cavalry, serving, he says, during the Spanish-
Am^erican war, and for several years afterwards.
Coming out of the army, Birger returned to Har-
risburg, and took up farming, and judging from his
own assertions he became quite a successful farmer.
At one time, according to his own statement, he owned
400 acres of land and a home in Harrisburg, although
it is doubtful if all these properties came into his
possession as rewards for the honest tilling of the soil.
The early years of the twentieth century found
Birger operating a small coal mine between Edgemont
and St. Louis, and in 1912 he lived in Christopher. A
year later he was back at Harrisburg.
It was about this time that persons who have
14
known Eirger for a great many years remember him
as the proprietor of a restaurant with a shady reputa-
tion at Ledford, near Harrisburg.
There was little semblance in Birger then to the
gunman and gang-leader that he later became. He
operated his lunch room, ran a gambling game and
sold whiskey, but that was in the days before national
or even state-wide prohibition and there were many
such places. Birger's place attracted no more atten-
tion than simply being one among many places outside
the dry areas here and there w^here a man could buy
whiskey. Biijger himself attracted little attention
other than for being a little different from most
proprietors of such places in that he had certain at-
tributes of a gentleman.
He was kind-hearted and considerate to the unfor-
tunate and the idol of those whom he employed. One
Harrisburg girl who was employed in the Birger Res-
taurant, w^ho had since married and moved away from
southern Illinois would not believe that the Charlie
Eirger whom she w^orked for at Ledford w^as the same
Charlie Birger of Gangland fame when she returned to
southern Illinois on a visit.
During the years from 1913 to 1923 Birger oper-
ated various places in Saline county and just across
the county line in Williamson county. He did not give
the law enforcement authorities much trouble, nor
was he troubled by them to any extent until after the
eighteenth amendment was passed. It was during the
prevalence of local option as to the liquor traffic when
Eirger was in his heydey. In both Saline and William-
son counties, Birger coud usually be found as the cen-
ter of an oasis just on the outer edge of some area
w^hich had gone dry by the voters' choice. Such was
15
Ledfcrd, and such was Halfway in Williamson county
to which Eirger was attracted because of the apparent
permanency of the dry rule in Marion.
It was at Halfway on November 15, 1923 that Birger
killed his first man in Williamson county, although it
was said at that time that Cecil Knighton whom he
killed at Halfway on that date was his fifth victim.
Knighton was a boy about 24 years old and an
employe of Birger, having come to Saline county to
Birger's employ from Alabama. At that time Birger's
place which was the building that formerly stood on
the west side of the road at Halfway was not operating
and Eirger was associated with Charles, alias Chink
Schafer, Nathan Riddle and Ralph Hill in the opera-
tion of a place across the road on the east. Knighton
was employed there as a bartender. Birger and Knight-
on slept in Birger's building across the road.
On the night of the killing, witnesses testified at
the inquest, Birger and Knighton were in a bad humor.
They had been having trouble for three or four days.
Their associates professed not to know what the trouble
was about. -It was said, however, that as Birger left
the place that was open to cross the road to where he
had teen sleeping, Knighton followed him with a gun.
Inmates of the former place soon afterwards heard
three shots. The first ,a revolver shot, was said to
have been fired by Knighton, and the next two in.
rapid succession came from a shotgun in the hands of
Charlie Birger. Knighton was dead, lying face down
in the road, when the men rushed out of the road
house. Birger surrendered and spent the rest of the
night in the Williamson county jail. He was exoner-
ated by a coroner's jury the next day.
Three nights later, Birger, himself, was shot and
16
seriously wounded in a shooting fray at Halfway in
which W. G. (Whitey) Doering, Eagen gangster, was
killed. At the time it was generally believed Birger
killed Doering although no testimony before the cor-
oner's jury indicated such to be true. No eye witnesses
of the shooting testified. The two men were outside of
the Halfway road house alone at the time of the shoot-
ing, according to Birger.
Birger was in the Herrin hospital at the time the
coroner's jury convened at Herrin and although the
jury did not interrogate him, he submitted a written
statement to the jury. In the statement Birger said
that Doering came to the place and called him outside
saying that he wanted to talk to him. He said that
shortly after they got out on the porch, Doering drew
a gun and shot him, and that immediately afterwards
a fusilade of twenty or twenty-five shots were fired.
Birger said that he fell to the ground when Doering
shot him, and that fact saved him from being caught
in the volley that followed, but Doering who was stand-
ing erect was caught in the fire and mortally wounded.
He died shortly afterward on the operating table in
the Herrin hospital.
Three years after the shooting, Birger told a news-
paper man additional details of the Doering killing.
He said that after Doering had called him out, the
St. Louis gangster suggested that Birger assist him in
robbing the payroll of a Harrisburg mine. Birger told
the newspaper man that he became indignant at Doer-
ing's suggestion and told him that he would not take
part in any such robbery, nor would he permit any one
else to prey upon the Saline county mines.
Birger said that while he was denouncing Doer-
ing for suggesting the robbery, Doering shot him, and
17
almost immediately through a window in the road
house behind him, one of Birger's followers shot
Doering down. Birger never disclosed the name of
his man who killed Doering.
Birger and Doering had known each other for a
great many years, and just what connection there was
between the leader of the St. Louis Egan's gangster
and the man who later became leader of even a more
famous gang was not revealed at that time. Doering
died without revealing any of the many gangland sec-
rets which he harbored. Birger recovered from his
wounds, however, and throughout the remainder of
his career runs the adage proven so conclusively in the
death of Doering, ''Dead men tell no tales."
CHAPTER 7.
Chapter 7 Deals with Birger as Owner of Shady Rest
Before the Opening of the War with the
Shelton Brothers Gang,
The notoriety attracted to Birger as a result of
the shooting fray at Halfway in which Whitey Doering
lost his life and in which Birger was wounded, result-
ed in suspicion being cast upon Birger as a possible
member of the Egan gang which two years before had
staged a $2,000,000 mail robbery at St. Louis. Doer-
ing at the time of his death was under conviction for
the robbery but was free on an appeal bond. At the
time Doering was killed, there was considerable rumor
that a quarrel had ensued between the two over the
division of the mail robbery loot. As a result two days
after the killing. Inspector Keefe of the postal depart-
ment headed a search of the Halfway road houses in
18
the hopes of finding part of the loot, but the search
was unsuccessful.
According to Birger he had known Doering 22
years before at the time Birger operated a coal mine
between Edgemont and East St. Louis.
Whatever were the circumstances which led up to
the death of Doering, the shooting affray ending in
his death, at least, according to Birger, brought about
Birger's meeting with Carl Shelton. Shelton was first
to become an ally and then an arch enemy of Birger.
The two met in the Herrin hospital while Birger was
recovering from his wounds.
Later, as Birger put it, the two joined in the
"slot machine racket" in Williamson county, owning
jointly the machines which were operated in many of
the bootlegging joints of the county. The two of them
reaped considerable profits for a year or so, until ac-
tivities of S. Glenn Young and the Ku Klux Klan be-
gan to interfere. Speaking of his connection with the
anti-Klan faction, Birger at one time said, 'The Ku
Klux Klan began to stir things up in Herrin and Shel-
ton and I began to tone down some of the Klansmen,
although they got a bunch of our men, too."
Throughout the war with the Klan, Birger and
the Sheltons remained henchmen up to and including
the last fight on the occasion of an election at Herrin
on April 13, 1926. Birger denies that he participated
in that fight which resulted in six fatalities, but he
admits that some of his men took part in it.
A few weeks afterward came the break between
Birger and the Shelton brothers, Carl, Earl and Ber-
nie. Birger's version of the break was that difficul-
ties arose when the Sheltons held up a Harrisbur^
business man and took several thousand dollars worth
19
of jewelry and money from him. The business man
was a friend to Birger, and Birger said he forced the
Sheltons to return the money. After the money was
returned, Birger says, the Sheltons planned to kidnap
the business man and hold him for $1,000 ransom.
Art Newman learned of the plot, according to Birger,
and it was then that Newman allied himself with Bir-
ger by informing him of the plot which was blocked
by Birger.
The Sheltons, however, have a different version
of the break between them and Birger. Trouble be-
tween the two factions began, according to Carl Shel-
ton, leader of the Shelton gang, when the latter refused
to assist in smuggling some of Birger 's relatives into
the United States. Shelton said that early difficulties
between he and Birger were climaxed by a disagree-
ment over the division of the profits in the slot mach-
ine business. Shelton said that Birger had collected
about $3,000 from the slot machines, and when Shel-
ton asked Birger for his share of the profits, Birger
declared there were no profits to be divided, claiming
that he had expended all the receipts for official pro-
tection. Shelton then severed business as well as
friendly relations with Birger. When learning of
Birger*s version of the break between them, Shelton
declared that Birger had framed the robbery on the
Harrisburg business man in order to make a grand-
stand play as the protector of Harrisbiirg citizens.
The beginning of the gang war found Birger as
the wealthy owner of Shady Rest, a resort notorious
far and wide. The resort was located in Williamson
county just about two miles west of the Saline county
line. It was located on a 60-acre tract of land which
was mostly covered with timber. Near the state hard
20
r<,..
>«oaV-
1-X^i
RAY \TL\'' HYLAND
road in a clearing^ Birger had erected a log cabin and
installed in it practically every convenience of the
modern home. In front of the cabin on the state road
stood a lunch stand which served the two-fold purpose
of a convenience to travelers and of an outpost to
protect the cabin against surprise from the authori-
ties. Built in 1924, Shady Rest however, was not
troubled much with official interference during the
rest of that year and the next, during which it ran
full blast. On summer afternoons scores of automo-
biles could be seen parked at Shady Rest while their
owners were at the cabin. It was the most notorious
resort in the southern part of the state, and attracted
gamblers and others from far and near. There was
an arena for cock fighting, while blooded bull dogs,
eagles and monkeys occupied various large cages about
the place.
Aside from being a popular place where whiskey,
good and bad, could be bought, Shady Rest was also
a station of a great booze transportation system that
ran from the coast of Florida to St. Louis. Whiskey
caravans with smuggled liquor from Florida frequent-
ly stopped at Shady Rest, according to Birger's own
story, to wait during the day time to complete the trip
to St. Louis at night.
Birger admitted that he was a bootlegger, but he
declared that the Sheltons had him beaten by far in
their organization, which he said transported the
smuggled liquor. Birger declared that the Sheltons
even used stolen cars in their liquor transportation,
and got by with it.
The gang war put an end to profits in the whis-
key business for both Birger and the Sheltons. Al-
though the "battle to death" never took place, attacks
21
and threat of attacks upon Shady Rest as well as the
armed crew of some score men which Birger kept there
scared his trade away. Patrons became afraid to stop
there. Virtually the same thing was true of the Shel-
ton joints near Herrin. In the attacks upon Shad||
Rest, dynamite bombs thrown from automobiles and
an airplane were used as well as machine guns and
rifles. Armored cars were called in to use by both
factions.
CHAPTER 8.
Chapter 8 Deals with the Murders of Ward "Casey''
Jones, Mayor Joe Adams of West City and Mr.
and Mrs. Lory Price of Marion, 111.
ALSO THE CONFESSION OF ART NEWMAN,
BIRGERITE.
The body of Ward "Casey" Jones, Birger gangster
was found in a creek on October 28, 1926 near Equal-
ity, Gallatin County, Illinois. Charley Birger identi-
fied the body which was riddled with shot and had
Jones buried, paying the bill.
Charged with this murder in a trial held in Wil-
liamson county late in June and early in July in 1927
were Rado Millich and Eural Gowan. A man by the
name of Rone turned state's evidence and was not
charged with the murder. The result of the trial is
told later in this book.
Millich was a Montenegrin and had a bullet-shap-
ed head. Gowan was a snappy looking boy of 19 and
presented quite a contrast in court compared with the
dark, ill-looking Millich. Rone was used as a witness
22
of the state in the case. He claimed Millich and Gowan
used several means of torture on Jones and then mur-
dered him in Shady Rest and then placed the body
in a car in which it was hauled to the creek near Equal-
ity and thro\\Ti overboard. State's Attorney Arlie 0.
Boswell, a very young man, conducted the prosecution
in this trial.
Gowan swore that he was not a gunman but only
a flunky and had nothing to do with the killing. At-
torneys for Millich said that Millich shot and killed
Jones in front of the barbecue stand of Birger*s but
that it was in self defense. Arlie Boswell said Jones
was tortured two days before he was put to death. At
this time Charlie Birger was in jail for the murder of
]Mayor Joe Adams, charged with complicity. While
the Jones trial was going on and Birger was awaiting
his trial, T. A. King, the builder of the armored car of
Birger's, filed suit for $175 which he declared was due
him, and got judgment for that amount.
The Murder of Mayor Joe Adams of West City, 111.
It was the armored car of the Sheltons that result-
ed in Birger's intense hatred for 300-pound Mayor Joe
Adams of West City. Birger went to Adams' home
at West City and told him he wanted the Sheltons'
armored truck, which he accused Adams of harboring.
Adams refused to turn it over to him and Birger de-
clared he had better deliver the armored truck to him
the following morning in order to save trouble. Adams
did not deliver the truck, and a few days later two
motor cars speeding through West City riddled with
machine gun bullets two houses adjacent to the Adams
home, which were evidently mistaken by the various
members of the attacking party as the residence of
the West City Mayor.
23
A week later a dynamite bomb hurled from a pass-
ing automobile landed in Adams' front yard, tearing
away part of the home. On one occasion Birger called
the wife of the West City Mayor on the telephone, and
told her to take out plenty of life insurance on her
husband.
It was only a few days after that, December 26,
1926, that the West City Mayor was called to the front
door of his home and shot down by the Thomassoii
brothers, Elmo and Harry, employed, according to the
latter, by Charley Birger, to do the deed. Elmo Thom-
asson burned to death in Shady Rest when it went up
in flames.
The Thomassons were but two of the youths at-
tracted to Charley Birger. There Were many others,
among them being Eural Gowan and Clarence Rone,
defendants in the trial slated to open in June for the
murder of Ward Jones at Birger's cabin. These boys
were loyal to Birger, and Birger himself relates the
story of Rone's loyalty to him when Rone would have
been rewarded for betraying his chief tan.
Birger said that the Shelton boys captured Rone
in Marion one night, and knowing his affiliation with
their enemy, debated as to his fate. Finally they de-
cided to free Rone and to pay him to return to the
cabin and signal them when Birger was there. Rone,
according to the story, was to display a white handker-
chief in one of the windows of the cabin when Birger
arrived. Instead, he warned Birger of the plot, and
the gang leader Was prepared to withstand any sur-
prise attack.
During the g^ng war Bii*ger lived with his wife
and children in Harrisbiirg, seldom staying at the
cabin at Shady Rest. At his home a guard was main-
24
tained about the block in which he lived to prevent
surprise by his enemies. Birger's wife, Mrs. Bernice
Birger, who is pretty and but 19 years of age, is his
second wife. His first wife and the mother of his two
small daughters, and Birger are divorced.
The separation of Birger and his first wife came
in 1925. Late in 1924 Birger was one of the bootleg-
gers raided by S. Glenn Young, and he was prosecuted
in Federal Court at Danville by the late Judge W. C.
Potter of Marion on Youngs evidence. Birger stood
trial and was convicted. Judge Lindley fined Birger
§500 for possession of liquor, $1000 for selling liquor,
§1000 for maintaining a common nuisance, and sen-
tenced him to serve one year in the Vermillion County
Jail. Just before the Christmas holidays of that year
Birger petitioned Judge Lindley for a short parole to
spend the holidays with his wife, Mrs. Bee Birger, and
their two children. Before the judge had acted on the
petition, however, Birger's wife wrote to Judge Lind-
ley not to let Birger out, saying that he had threatened
to kill her. The parole was denied, and when Birger
was finally released from jail he and his wife lived
apart. In February, 1926, he married his present wife
w^ho cares for his two daughters, Minnie, age 9, and
Charline, age 5. Birger's first wife is also said to be
remarried.
Throughout Birger's career two characteristics
stand out, his facilities for providing alibis to cover
his crimes, and his work as a benefactor of the unfor-
tunate. It is this latter characteristic of his that
earned for him the nickname of ''Robin Hood."
Through his charitable actions, Birger won the
esteem of many of the better citizens of Harrisburg.
He was known to have contributed frequently to the
25
support of widows and orphans. On at least one occas-
ion during the winter, Birger made a survey of Har-
risburg to determine the number of widows in need of
coal, and he saw that they were supplied with fuel.
On other occasions he bought food for the unfortun-
ates.
Birger and his men visited a place in Herrin one
night where some armed bandits were said to have
been barricaded. They went with the intention, they
said, of taking the armed men and turning them over
to the law. But when they arrived at the home and
entered they found only an elderly woman there by
the bedside of her sick daughter. The couple were
destitute. Birger took money from his pocket and
gave it to them. Acts of this kind were not forgotten
and the recipients always stood up for him afterwards.
Birger then went from the home to the Elks Club and
called Joe Crizzell, custodian, out in the lobby. "I just
went out to a house in your town," he told Grizzell,
''intending to shake it down, but all I found there was
an old woman and her sick daughter on starvation. I
gave them some money, but they've got to be cared for
and have some food."
When the gangster had gone, Mr. Grizzell, carry-
ing out the charitable program of his order, investi-
gated Birger's story and found it true as he had re-
lated it.
Birger's work as a benevolent benefactor and as a
gunman and gangster went hand in hand, as the for-
mer made alibis easy for the latter. The fact that he
could readily furnish alibis and divert suspicion was
responsible to a great extent for the long delays about
his apprehension. At the time of the slaying of Mayor
Joe Adams of West City, Birger was in Marion and
26
talked to State's Attorney Arlie 0. Boswell. He exhi-
bited himself about public places in Marion at the very
time Elmo and Harry Thomasson, according to the lat-
ter's story, were firing the shots for which Thomasson
said they were paid $50 each for ending the life of
Adams. Harry was sentenced to life imprisonment
for the act.
When Lory price and wife disappeared from their
home in Marion all the circumstances indicated that
the Sheltons were the abductors. Everything was in
Birger's favor. Price was reputed to be Birger's
friend. He was thought to have a quarrel with Carl
Shelton just a few days before he was taken out of his
home and killed. Previous to the Price abduction, the
Sheltons were generally regarded as the attackers of
Birger's Shady Rest when four of Birger's followers
died in the cabin.
And not until the lips of gangland were opened
and associates of the gangster persuaded to talk did
the authorities actually have evidence that Birger
kidnapped the Prices and that he had previously burn-
ed his own cabin and killed his own followers. These
crimes are alleged to have been committed by Birger.
all because the victims "knew too much."
Birger also was the '*cover up man'* in the slay-
ing of Ward Jones. When Jones' body was found in
Gallatin county Birger identified the body, gave an
Equality undertaker instructions to arrange a funeral
with ''plenty of flowers" and send the bill to Birger.
In the meantime, Birger swore vengeance on the Shel-
tons and allegedly set about seeking to punish them as
the slayers of Jones.
W^ith Birger brought to bay the one question at
the time of his trial was, if convicted of any of the
27
crimes with which he was charged, would he ever
speak to clear up the countless other gangland myster-
ies of which he doubtless knows much.
The Confession of Art Newman, Birgerite.
Following is a part of the confession of Art New-
man, one time a great friend of Birger, as given to a
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter: About 3 p. m., on
January 17, Charley Birger got me to his home in Har-
risburg. There were present, beside myself and Bir-
ger, Connie Ritter, Ernest Balleau, Leslie Simpson,
Riley Simmons, Frank Schrorer, Freddie Wooten and
Birger's wife.
Birger asked me if I would go with him to see
Lory Price, remarking "he has been talking too damn
much to Sheriff Coleman about us and I am going to
put a stop to that talk/*
We then drove to Marion in two automobiles, my
Chrysler coach and Connie Ritter's Buick sedan. We
drove around Marion and the hard road in that vicini-
ty for about two hours but failed to see Price and re-
turned to Harrisburg about 6 p. m., for supper. We
started out again for Price about 9 p. m., and drove to
his home. Observing that some one else was there
we drove around for a while and returned later to
find Price gone. We then drove to a barbecue stand
just north of Marion where we remained until 11:30
p. m. At this barbecue stand we saw a pet monkey
we used to own at the Birger cabin. They told us at
the barbecue stand that Price brought the monkey
there about 11 o*clock on the night the cabin was dy-
namited.
Upon reaching Price's home, we got out and
walked to the porch. Birger called Price out and told
28
Letter Lured Adams to Death
CclJ/ Al/i "2^'-' — ^ 5-^
/^2>lA^
^o-e -
, / "^ ^C^/
(O
^
..m'
Above IS the letter' which Harry Thomasson and his
brother Elmo presented to Jlayor Adams at his home ii
West City and then shot him down in the door of his hom^
him that he wanted to talk to him and asked him to
get down and get in my car. Birger took Price's pistol
from him and laid it on the porch and Price said, *'are
you going to hurt me, Charlie?" Birger answered,
**no, I just want to talk to j^ou."
Price and Birger got in the back seat of my car
and Freddie Wooten in the front seat with me. The
door was open. Birger started to say something and
Price said to me: **Art drive down the road a little
way. Let's not talk here." But as I started the engine
Birger called to Ritter and the others standing out-
side, ''take that woman out and do away with her."
Wooten then closed the door and we started to
move. Price said, with alarm, to Birger: "Charlie,
please don't hurt Ethel." Birger answered: *'0h,
never mind," and told me to go ahead and drive around
Saline county. I drove around Saline county about
an hour, during which time Birger cursed Price in the
foulest language and accused Price of having sought
to prevent Harry Thomasson from talking about the
Joe Adams murder in the Marion jail. He also accus-
ed Price of telling Sheriff Coleman about the gang
activities. Price denied all these things repeatedly,
trying to show Birger that he never had sought to
hurt him. Birger then began accusing Price of know-
ing who dynamited the cabin. Price denied this and
with good reason, for we knew who dynamited the
cabin. It was three of Birger's own men.
Birger ordered me to drive to his home in Harris-
burg. When we got there he got out and went inside.
He came out in a minute and said :
"Schrorer is still in there with that dope head,
Crews. I told him when we left to take Crews out
and kill him because I did not want Crews to see us
29
leave." Birger then got in the car and ordered me to
drive to Rosiclare to the Spar mine. I drove down
there and upon reaching there Birger got out, machine
gun in hand and said: 'Trice I have a damned good
notion to take you out and kill you and throw you in
the pit."
Wooten induced Birger to get back in the car,
telling Birger that Price was right and was telling the
truth. Birger got back in the car and told me to drive
back to Harrisburg, where he told me to drive to the
ruins of the cabin. "I want to show this the
ruins he has caused."
On the way to the barbecue stand where the cabin
used to be Birger got kind of confidential with Price
and eased up to him saying: "Price I want you to
say that the Shelton brothers blew up my cabin and
killed those people because I want the post office in-
spector to think that the Shelton brothers were trying
to get you and me, to prevent us appearing against
the Sheltons at the mail robbery trial at Quincy. If
you tell this it will make things look blacker for the
Sheltons at Quincy."
Price declared that he did not know who blew up
the cabin and Birger cursed him. By the time we
reached the barbecue stand it was raining hard. Bir-
ger ordered us to get out. As Birger was getting out
Price leaned over to me and said: **Art can you help
me now?"
Before I could reply Birger, machine gun in hand
said threateningly: "I would like to see some one
help you now," and then took Price by the arm and took
him in the barbecue stand cursing him and shot him
three times in the breast. Price pitched forward on
his face. At that moment the other car drove up and
30
I said : "My God, you have killed that man and look
where you have put us. I thought you only wanted to
talk to him."
Wooten said : *'If I had an idea you were going to
do this dirty work I would not have come out here."
Then the others got out of the car outside and Wooten
said : ''Now here is that other car with that woman,
what are we going to do now?"
Ritter and the others then came in the stand and
said not to w^orry about the woman, that they had
killed her. I said: "Where did you put her?"
Ritter said, "down in an old mine shaft near the
Herrin road about 75 feet. We threw her in and heard
her hit the water. Then we spent two hours filling it
up with corrugated iron, stone, timber and rubbage.
We filled it up."
Birger said: "All right. I know an old mine
near DuQuoin. I will put him there."
They then put Price in my car over my protest,
wrapped in a piece of canvas. Birger got in the car
and ordered me to drive. He sat on Price's body,
machine gun on his lap. We drove for a while around
Carbondale and just on the other side Birger ordered
me to stop and he got out and vomited. He said: "I
can kill a man, but I can't sit on him. I don't know
what the hell is the matter with me, it's not my nerve,
but when I kill a man it always makes me sick after-
wards. It must be my stomach."
He then ordered Ritter to get in my car and we
drove on about 5 miles. I thought Price was dead,
but he said, "0 Connie, you will live to regret this. I
am an inocent man." Ritter poked him with a mach-
ine gun, cursed him and ordered me to stop. He got
out and called back to Birger, "I have had enough."
31
Then Simpson was put in the car and we rode a little
while and he could not stand it under the heavy breath-
ing of Price, so he got out. Birger then ordered Woot-
en in the car, but he didn't sit on Price's body like the
others, but he turned down the front seat and sat on
it. We then drove to a mine near DuQuoin. Birger
got out but came running back and said there was a
watchman there.
We soon came to a little white school house on the
left turn of the road and he said he would put Price's
body there and burn the building, but it was raining so
hard he was afraid he could not have a good fire, so he
ordered me to drive down to the spot where the body
was later found. Birger ordered me to stop and or-
dered Price's body taken out of the car and Birger
walked in the field. As they took Price from the car
his arm fell on my shoulder and I noticed on his finger
was a Masonic ring. He said to me : **0 Art, I thought
you was a friend of mine." And I said: "Lory, I'll
kill that for this."
They then took Price's body over in the field and
threw it down and I heard Birger cry out when they
let him down "you will never talk against any of my
boys again." I heard eight shots and Birger came
back with the blood stained canvas in his hand. I said
to Birger, "what are you going to do with the canvas?"
"I am going to wrap Price's pistol in it and throw
in on the burning pile of rubbish at the Dowell mine."
Wooten and Ritter got in the car with me and we
drove to West Frankfort to Ritter's home. On the
way to West Frankfort Ritter told me that they took
Mrs. Price away immediately after we left with Price.
He said she did not say a word, did not ask where she
was going. When we stopped at the mine and ordered
32
her out Schroeder shot her twice in the back as she
stepped on the running board. She screamed and fell
on her face. Ritter shot her twice in the back as she
lay on the ground. He said they then picked her up
and threw her in the pit
The Finding of Mrs. Price's Body.
The body of Mrs. Lory Price, wife of a slain Illi-
nois highway patrolman, was found at 12:10 p. m., on
Monday, June 13, 1927, in the shaft of an abandoned
mine near Marion.
Discovery of the body appeared to bear out the
testimony of Art Newman, former henchman of Char-
lie Birger, that Mr. and Mrs. Price were slain on the
sam.e night by members of the Birger gang. Price's
body was found in a field in Washington county in
February, 1927, where Newman said it was left after
Birger pumped it full of machine gun bullets.
The head of the body was first uncovered. Four
workmen were in the pit at the time. When it became
visible they called Coroner George Bell and Sheriff
Oren Coleman into the shaft. Everyone else left. Or-
en Coleman was the sheriff who succeeded George Gal-
ligan as sheriff of Williamson county. Coleman had
a gratifying record before accepting the office as sher-
iff and did great work as sheriff.
The officials examined the part of the body ex-
posed and announced they were certain of the
identification. The remains were removed at once.
The body was badly decomposed. The hair was
drawn far back from the forehead. The rest of the
remains were kept covered. The body lay face up, ap-
parently as it had fallen when thrown into the shaft.
33
It is said that Mrs. Price was soon to have given birth
to a child when she was murdered.
Tin cans, parts of automobiles and other refuse
covered the body. The assassins spent a half hour
throwing debris into the shaft over the body. Feeling
ran high for some time after the finding of the body of
Mrs. Price, and Birger who was in jail in Benton
charged with the complicity with the murder of Joe
Adams and also with that of Mr. and Mrs. Lory Price,
was moved to the jail in Springfield, the State Capitol.
Later he was brought back to the Franklin county seat
for trial. At first it seemed as if a mob would be or-
ganized and tear down the Benton jail and lynch Bir-
ger. However, things went smoothly and nothing hap-
pened.
A large crowd gathered around the pit and Dale
Jones, of Ozark, Mo., Mrs. Price^s father, identified
the body and had it prepared for burial. The body
was found 33 feet 9 inches from the ground level, un-
der a mass of timbers, iron roofing and automobile
parts and other debris.
The body was discovered by Walter Schmitt and
J. R. Jelly of Royalton, and Dick McNail and Edw^ard
Anderson of Energ3\ The discovery was made just
after the workers had changed shifts.
The task of removing the body from the muck
and mire of the mine was a difficult one. It became
necessary for the men to discard their shovels and use
wooden paddles in removing the remains of the mur-
dered woman from the mud. The odor in the mine be-
came so offensive that it was difficult for the men to
continue their labors. There was a solemn atmosphere
about the place as the hundreds who had gathered to
watch the victim of the most horrible murder that
34
ever perpetrated in southern Illinois be taken from the
mine, bared their heads in respect of the highway pa-
trolman's wife. Unemployed miners helped dig out
the body. A large crowd stood near constantly and
interest was intense.
A special grand jury indicted Charlie Birger, Con-
nie Ritter, Leslie Simpson, Ernest Balleau and Riley
"Alabama" Simmons before the body was found. At
this time Harvey Dungey, former friend of Birger,
said he had confessed to John Stack, chief of Illinois
Highway Police, that the story told by Art Newman
was the truth.
Charlie Birger at this time was in jail in Spring-
field, Illinois, waiting for trial on July 6, 1927, at Ben-
ton, Illinois, for the murders of Joe Adams and Lory
Price. When asked about his condition Birger told a
guard in the jail to leave him alone, that it looked as if
the jig was up. Later he declared that NewTnan was
lying to shield himself. Newman came back with the
w^ords that Birger was lying and trying to "frame"
Newman.
At this time, July, 1927, the trial of Eural Gowan
and Rado Millich for the murder of Ward Jones was
going on in Marion. Witnesses testified on one side
just opposite the testimony of the other side, showing
that no one cared to lie about the matter. The defense
declared that Harry Thomasson told them that he
swore falsely for the state but that the officers were
no longer nice to him and he didn't care for anyone
knowing he swore falsely.
As this trial was nearing its end and Birger was
preparing for his trial on Wednesday, the sixth. It
looked as if the trial would be postponed through
complaints of the defense. The prosecution announced
35
it was ready to commence. Birger^s wife was staying
in Benton and doing everything possible for Birger.
It was reported that she tried in many ways to stir up
a feeling of pity for Birger. At this time the legislat-
ure of Illinois was fighting hard to pass a law substit-
uting electrocution for hanging in cases of the death
penalty. In the previous month, June 17, 1927, Joe
Chesnas, 22, was hanged by Sheriff Lige Turner at
Harrisburg in the Saline county jail yard for the mur-
der of William Unsell, aged mail carrier of Harrisburg.
Only a few months prior to the hanging of Chesnas,
Joe "Peck" Smith of Gallatin county was hanged by
Sheriff Green in the Shawneetown jail yard for the
murder of his wife. He was convicted on circumstan-
tial evidence and maintained his innocence to the last.
He took his execution very calmly. Joe Chesnas, the
Harrisburg youth who was hanged on June 17 in Har-
risburg, had pleaded guilty and took death very calm-
ly. He smiled and winked at a spectator just before
the black cap was adjusted. Chesnas was supposed to
have been a friend of Charlie Birger. The writer of
this article talked with Chesnas before his death and
the young man seemed to regret his life of crime not
at all. He was sentenced by Judge A. E. Somers.
In the trial of Eural Gowan, 19 year old youth,
and Rado Millich, Montenegrin, for the murder of
Vv^ard Jones, Millich said he was the only one to shoot
Jones, this act being in self defense. He claimed he
shot four times with a rifle after Jones had fired at
him from behind with machine gun. Millich testified
Gowan took no part. Others swore Gowan took no
part while some swore they saw Gowan shoot Jones
with a revolver. State's Attorney Arlie 0. Boswell
said he would prove to the jury that Jones was tortur-
36
QUS ADAMS
(Brother of Joe Adams)
ed and then killed by Gowan and Millich and later
thrown in a creek near Equality. Jones was killed
following a quarrel and one witness testified that Bir-
ger ordered him killed after he had been wounded by
Gowan and Millich.
On Tuesday, July 5, 1927, the writer of this ar-
ticle had gotten much information on the trial and
wrote in the paper he was with at that time the fol-
lowing sketch concerning the preparedness of Frank-
lin county authorities for the big trial.
Three machine guns and 30 deputy sheriffs, arm-
ed to the teeth, were on guard today about the F ranklin
county jail and courthouse to prevent any possible out-
break in connection with the trial of Charlie Birger,
southern Illinois gang leader ; Art Newman, his former
henchman, and Ray "Izzy" Hyland.
A posse of 1000 men have been placed in readi-
ness to appear at short notice. The authorities are
taking no chances of any further sensational develop-
ments of a trial that promises to disrupt gangdom in
the southern part of the state.
Birger, Newman and Hyland are to be tried, be-
ginning Wednesday, for the slaying of Joe Adams,
300 pound mayor of West City, 111., who was called
to the porch of his home last autumn and riddled with
bullets.
And thusly the officers of Franklin county pre-
pared for the big trial. Williamson county at this time
was trying hard to get the trial of Birger in connection
with the killing of Lory Price and wife to be held in
Marion. Birger's men were alleged to have taken part
in the killing, had already been indicted by a Washing-
ton county grand jury. Price's body was found in
37
Washington county. Much interest was being shown
over the trial of Birger and his men for the murder of
big Joe Adams. Thousands were expected to jam the
streets of Benton on the day of the trial of the gang-
sters. Harry Thomasson had already been sentenced
to life imprisonment after a confession and plea of
guilt. He was to be used as a star witness for the state
against Hyland, Newman and Birger. His brother,
Elmo, died in the fire that destroyed Birger's Shady
Rest. Newman accused Birger of having the place
burned to get rid of its occupants who ''knew too
much." Just before the trial public opinion was that
Birger and his gang was guilty — in the first degree —
and should be punished accordingly. A few seemed to
think that the gangsters who confessed and turned
state's evidence should be dealt with lightly, as in the
case of Clarence Rone in the trial following the killing
of Ward Jones.
CHAPTER 9.
This Chapter Deals with the Trial of Charlie Birger,
Newman and Hyland in Connection with the
Murder of Joe Adams.
Also Ward Jones Trial in Marion.
Guarded on all sides by thirty special deputies,
^'Machine Gun Charlie" Birger, notorious southern
Illinois gangster, and two of his former henchmen. Art
Newman and Ray "Izzy the Jew" Hyland, were escort-
ed into the courtroom at Benton, Illinois, July 6, 1927,
to defend themselves against charges of murdering
Mayor Joe Adams of West City, in Franklin county.
38
The courtroom was packed to capacity long before
the three defendants were taken from the jail and
brought in for trial. Crowds of curious bystanders
thronged the yards below and Sheriff James Pritchard
experienced difficulty in taking the prisoners from
the jail to the court house.
While no announcement was made when the pris-
oners were brought in concerning the procedure the
defense will take to save the gangsters from conviction,
it was understood the attorney for Newman would at-
tack the indictment, charging that the grand jury
which returned it was ''handpicked." The state was
relying upon the testimony of its star witness, Harry
Thomasson, former Birgerite, to convict the men.
Thomasson made a confession that he and his brother
Elmo, now dead, were paid $50 by Birger to kill Adams.
Birger sat in the courtroom and watched fate.
His first act upon entering the court room was to kiss
his wife and two children. The work of selecting the
jury was begun shortly before noon.
A motion to quash the indictment against the
three defendants was introduced by their attorneys
shortly after they were brought into court. Judge
Charles H. Miller was to rule on the motion later. The
defense attorneys presented the motion on the grounds
that the grand jury which indicted the men had been
illegally drawn and therefore was not vested with
proper power. They contended that the venire of
the grand jury was issued and returned the same day
and only a few minutes apart.
When the court reconvened for the afternoon ses-
sion R. E. Smith of the Birger counsel was introduc-
ing evidence in an effort to support his motion. The
work of selecting the jury had not at that time begun.
39
Attorneys for Hyland were trying to prove he
was not the driver of the car as alleged by Thomasson.
State's Attorney Roy Martin of Franklin county
believed that he had sufficient evidence to place the
noose around the neck of each defendant.
Jury Takes Ward Jones Case.
At this time, July 6, in Marion, the jury in the
trial of Rado Millich and Eural Gowan, charged with
the murder of Ward Jones, took the case and retired
to their room after the final pleas of State's Attorney
Arlie 0. Boswell.
The state sought the death penalty for Gowan
and Milhch. It was contended that the two defendants
killed Jones at Shady Rest and later threw his body
into North Fork creek in Gallatin county. Millich ad-
mitted killing Jones in self defense, following a quar-
rel, while Gowan denied all complicity in the crime.
In the sensational final arguments before the jury
State's Attorney Arlie 0. Bosw^ell of Williamson county
pleaded with the jurors to assess the death penalty and
*'put an end to the reign of terror created by Charlie
Birger and his infamous band of murderers."
''We don't have to go to Franklin county," declar-
ed Boswell, ''for men to bring our criminals to justice,
you men are courageous."
Attorneys for the defendants argued Millich and
Gowan were not real offenders but only "hangers on"
of Birger's gang while the slain man was *'Birger's
trusted lieutenant."
Result of Ward Jones Murder Trial At Marion.
Rado Millich and Eural Gowan were found guilty
of the 'murder of Ward Jones, a fellow gangster, at
iMarion on July 7, by the jury that heard their case in
Williamson county circuit court.
40
Punishment for Millich was fixed at death and for
Gowan 25 years imprisonment in the Chester peniten-
tiary.
The jury reached its verdict early on the 7th after
12 hours of dehberation. It was sealed and turned
over to the authorities to be read at the opening of
Judge HartwelFs court at 9 :30 a. m.
The lengthy deliberations were over the penalty
to be imposed on Millich, members of the jury told,
after their dismissal. The jurors could not agree
whether to recommend death or life imprisonment.
MilHch admitted at the trial that he shot and killed
Jones, a bartender at Charlie Birger's roadhouse, but
pleaded self defense. Gowan denied any part in the
slaying.
Millich by terms of the verdict, would be electro-
cuted under the new Illinois capital punishment law,.
electrocution replacing hanging. Millich was the first
to be sentenced to death since then the law was passed.
The trial of Millich and Gowan was the first on
charges of murder resulting from the long gang feud
in southern Illinois which is credited with a large
death toll.
A large crowd in the court room rushed forward
to congratulate jurors immediately after the formality
of reading the verdict.
The defendants were immediately removed to the
Williamson county jail, where they were to await sen-
tencing by Judge Hartwell. Gowen made no comment,
but Millich protested that the trial was a "frame-up."
He cursed all the way back to his cell.
Jones, according to evidence at the trial, was shot
down by Millich during a quarrel at Shady Rest, the
41
fort of the Birger gang. The evidence showed also
that he was assisted by Gowan.
Millich, a middle aged Montenegrin, serving a
term in the Chester penitentiary, testified in his own
behalf, saying that he shot Jones in self defense. His
attorneys said they would appeal the case. Gowan's
attorneys said he would not appeal.
Throughout the trial, State's Attorney Arlie Bos-
well pleaded for a death verdict to help clear the name
of ''Bloody Williamson." There were two ministers
on the jury, one of them foreman.
Continuation of the Trial of Birger, Hyland and New-
man at Benton, Illinois for Murder of Joe Adams.
The picking of the jury in the trial of Charlie Bir-
ger, Art Newman and Ray Hyland for assisting in the
murder of Joe Adams, Mayor of West City, began on
July 8, 1927, at Benton, Illinois.
Birger's attorneys moved for a spearate trial
from Art Newman, and Newman made a motion to
have a separate trial from Birger. Hyland threw his
lot with Birger. Birger then demanded that he be
tried before a jury composed of ladies or a mixed jury.
Charles Karch of Birger's counsel made a motion for
a bill of particulars. A motion to quash the indictment
of the three men was made. Judge Charles A. Miller
heard all the motions and then denied everyone of
them. Continuance of trial was denied and the selec-
tion of the jury began. A large crowd was present and
the sheriff had a large armed force aiding in keeping
order.
The defendants were brought into the court room
one at a time under guard. They appeared calm and
indifferent and acted as though they did not realize
42
that the state was trying to exact their lives. They
greeted their families and friends and Birger sat with
one of his daughters on his lap. He was unsuccessful
when he tried to induce her to allow him to pull one
of her teeth which was loose. Newman and Birger
paid little attention of the other at first. Later they
scowled across the table and cursed one another. Hy-
land sat back and grinned and whispered to one of the
defense attorneys. The court room was large enough to
hold the crowds. Not so many people attended as was
expected. The court then told the attorneys to start
examining for witnesses.
At recess of the court Newman told C. E. Hoiles,
president of the Bond County State bank at Pocahon-
tas, 111., that he drove the car used by three robbers
some time ago and assisted two of Birger's men in
robbing the bank. This happened in November, 1926.
He said Birger sent the men and that Birger got
one-fifth of the loot as his part. They took $10,000
from the bank. Newman displayed a scar on his hand
which he said he received when shot by citizens who
opened fire on the fleeing car.
Newman also told that Birger killed Shag Wor-
sham and an unknown man found at the home of Ollie
Potts of near Marion, whom Newman described as
Connie Ritter's sweetheart. Birger cursed and raved
at Newman and screamed *'women killer.'* Newman
scowled and cursed back and said, "if they don't shut
up that rat there's a lot more that can be told." Birger
shut up.
Both men then controlled themselves and the trial
went on quietly. The process of selecting a jury was
very slow and tedious.
The general public throughout the southern end
43
of the state of Illinois was at this time wondering if
much of gangland mysteries would be brought to light
in the trial at Benton. The topic of the day was Bir-
ger and the trial in Franklin county. Public sentiment
was very decidedly against Birger and his gang, al-
though many thought Art Newman should be dealt
with less harshly than Birger and his men because he
came through and confessed.
CHAPTER 10.
Chapter 10 Deals with More Details Concerning the
Trial of Birger, Newman and Hyland Before
the Selection of the Jury Was Completed At
Benton, Illinois.
Rado Millich Charges Numerous Crimes
to Man He Killed.
Rado Millich, in trying to get another trial for the
murder of Ward Jones, came out with a statement to
the public covering the crime. Millich did not deny
killing Jones, but is positive in his stand that it was
done in self defense. He tried to exonerate Eural
Go wan of any complicity with the crime.
In his statement in broken English, the Montene-
grin miner declared that he killed Jones with a rifle
belonging to State's Attorney Arlie Boswell, of Wil-
liamson county, and when Boswell heard this story he
replied : **If Millich got a rifle from me, when did he
get it, and why in the devil doesn't he bring it home?''
and laughingly commented further that "the story was
among the best he had ever heard."
44
MRS. JOE ADAMS
Millich charged unsolved killings to Clarence Rone
Harry Thomasson and Danny Brown Parker, and cited
them as the class of witnesses used against him. Nu-
merous killings were recounted by Millich, which in-
cluded that of *'Shag" Worsham, who was slain in
Zeigler and his body believed to have been disposed of
in a barn that was burned.
Ward Jones, Millich says, tried to kill him, but
could not shoot straight enough to do the job, which
was the only reason he was not ''bumped off" by
Jones.
The slaying of ''Wild Biir^ Holland, 18, is also re-
counted in the statements of Millich. Holland's body
according to Millich, was riddled by 28 bullet wounds.
On the same night Holland was killed Millich de-
clares that it was Ward Jones who shot Mr. and Mrs.
Max Pulliam, and that the reason they were not killed
was because Jones* machine gun jammed.
Millich denied ever being a gangster or of having
v/orked for either Newman or Birger and that all he
had told was the truth. He said that if he was forced
to die he would die with a load off his mind.
While the trial of Birger, Newman and Hyland
was going on in Benton for the killing of Joe Adams,
the attorneys of Millich were trying to solicit funds
for his appeal. They went to the local union Millich
belonged to and to his friends.
On the 11th of July, 1927, it was declared that all
death sentences would be carried out by hanging, only
in case w^here the murder had taken place before the
new law for electrocution took effect. Therefore Mil-
lich would be sentenced to hang.
On July 9, 1927, Floyd "Jardown" Arms of Her-
45
rin, Shelton gangster, started an eight year sentence
at Chester penitentiary following conviction on a sta-
tutory charge.
At this time, July 11, 1927, Monday, much hagg-
ingly and commenting was going on in Egypt concern-
ing the trial of the gangsters at Benton. The writer,
who at this time, was with the Eldorado News, made
a trip throughout the entire traversable districts of
Egypt and talked with gangsters, officers, good and
bad citizens, newspaper men and professional and
business men and clergymen.
The writer noticed that progressive citiznes and
honest business men in Egypt had declared that gang
war should stop. And that they would do all in their
power to see that it did stop. Two Benton bankers
stated that the mine riots, Klan war and gang war
had cost the south end of the state over $20,000,000.00
and there was no exaggeration in the figures.
Although much was brought to light that the
gangsters had done and there was much that was not
told which they had done, many deeds with which they
had nothing to do were credited to them. Old murders
and robberies were blamed on the gangsters and wild
rumors of confessions swept the country for several
weeks. It was the Jesse James scene played all over
again.
Birger Denied Every Charge Brought Up by Newman.
Birger at this time, in early July, was charged by
Newman with the murder of Jimmie Stone, whose dead
body was found sitting upright in a ditch near Marion
with a cigar jammed into the mouth, in December 1926.
Birger denied the charge. He also denied any know-
ledge of Lyle **Shag'* Worsham murder or of the Poch-
46
antos bank robbery, in which Newman implicated his
former chief during a bitter cross fire of interviews
with newspaper men.
Birger contended that he would be able to estab-
lish his innocence of all these charges when brought
to trial.
Birger, in all his denial, said he had served three
years in the U. S. Army and had an honorable dis-
charge. He also claimed that he was a native born
American citizen and that the people would know the
reason for the many accusations against him before
the trial was over.
Jimmie Stone was found dead with a note pinned
to his flesh which said : "He stole from his friends,''
and was signed : "K.K.K." On the night of December
1, 1925, two men called at the home of Ollie Potts, in
Harrisburg, called Stone out and took him away and
that was the last time he was seen alive by the Potts
woman, who was claimed to be the sweetheart of Con-
nie Ritter. Ritter was named in the Pocahontas bank
robbery with Newman, Frank Schrader and "Okla-
homa Slim" McGuire. The confessions of Millich and
Newman seem to run together on this story.
During the selecting of a jury in the Adams case
the attorneys for the defense were thrown into a panic
a number of times by Birger and Newman cursing and
telling on each other. They tried several times to get
at one another. At this time several newspapers came
out with the statements that the defense would plead
insanity as a result of the bitter verbal war of Birger
and Newman.
In connection with the Stone murder Newman
said to Birger when Birger called him a " woman
killing ," "I'll shut that dirty rat up." "Short-
47
]y after I got acquainted with the 'great gang leader'
(sneeringly) in 1924 he told me that he and Orb Tread-
way (since slain) were calling on Ollie Potts, who is
Connie Ritter's sweetheart. She lived near Marion.
"They found a man there. Treadway forced him
into a car and Birger shot him from behind. Then
they took the body around and showed it to several
persons — never mind who they were. They stuck a
cigar in his mouth, sat his body upright in a ditch and
left it."
"If that doesn't shut up that rat, tell him I'll
speak a little piece about w^ho killed 'Shag" Worsham.
There's a lot that can be told. So I'm a woman mur-
derer? We'll see." No more talking, the defense said
and Newman shut up. A defense attorney said: "If the
stories told by Ne^vman should be true both of these
men by their acts, would necessarily prove themselves
to be paranoiacs, two maniacs with positive homicidal
tendencies, and should be dealt with accordingly."
At intervals of the trial Birger would smoke with
his guard and go with him to get a drink and kept up
quit€ a conversation on various topics. He would al-
ways address his body guard when he wanted to go
get something as "you and I." Harry Thomasson who
was a star witness of the state, was anxious to go back
to the penitentiary where he was serving a life term
so he could study his music. He was playing the cor-
net. He said Hyland drove the car he and his brother
rode in to kill Joe Adams.
As time passed and the jury had not been selected
and panel after panel exhausted, crowds jammed the
court room and for the sake of giving the lawyers
more room the relatives of the defendants were made
48
move into the space behind the railing away from the
defendants.
Selecting the jury was a most tedious job and
day after day was consumed by it with one side dis-
missing those selected by the other side. Birger and
Newman kept up their verbal fire. Hyland who had
served in the U. S. Navy, paid little attention to any-
thing. His only relative that attended was a sister.
State's Attorney Arlie 0. Boswell of Williamson
county said that he was still trying hard to land the
Lory Price and wife murder trial for Marion. Birger
and a gang of his men had been indicted by both a
Washington and Williamson county grand jury follow-
ing the confession of Art Newman to a Post-Dispatch
reporter from St. Louis clearing up the mysterious
murders.
CHAPTER 11.
Chapter 11 Deals with More of the Adams Murder
Trial and Things Brought to Light by
Gangsters.
On July 12, 1927, as the trial of Birger, Newman
and Hyland continued there was a rumor that Birger-
ites featured in the Potter tragedy at Marion in the
fall of 1926. W. 0. Potter was a former U. S. district
attorney for eastern Illinois. Potter's wife, two chil-
dren and two grandchildren were found slain in the
Potter home and Potter was found dead in the well
outside the house. The heads of all were crushed.
The coroner's jury said Potter killed his family and
committed suicide. When the rumor started. State's
Attorney Boswell started a new investigation to try to
49
throw light on the tragedy which shocked even bloody
Williamson county, when it was discovered.
Since Art Newman turned on his former chief-
tain, he had been accusing him of the responsibility of
one murder after another in addition to the one which
he, Birger and *'Izzy" Hyland were then standing trial
for in Benton. In each instance evidence was uncover-
ed which, at least, in part seemed to confirm his
charges.
This latest and most startling development, con-
necting members of the Birger gang with the death of
Attorney Potter and family, could not be traced direct-
ly to Newman, but information was sent to Williamson
county's prosecutor that if he succesfully interrogated
Rado Millich, a fellow conspirator, he might uncover
the real reason for the Potter deaths.
Potter's fingerprints were identified on the stair-
way leading to the second floor of the house where
the crime was committed. It was also revealed that
Potter had encountered financial difficulties and that
he was responsible for the tragedies when he became
temporarily insane.
State's Attorney Boswell with Sheriff Oren Cole-
man and Coroner George Bell, questioned Rado Mil-
lich in the Williamson county jail where he was await-
ing execution. He had been sentenced to hang.
"Millich talked of Birger's activities in gang cir-
cles but denied absolutely he had knowledge tending
to indicate that Birger was connected with the death
of Attorney Potter and members of his family," Bos-
well declared.
**We also questioned members of the family, but
learned nothing to change our belief that Potter alone
50
caused the deaths of his family while temporarily in-
sane."
All this time the selection of the jury in the Ad-
ams murder case went on very slowly and exceptional-
ly tedious. Absolutely, one who was not at the trial,
cannot imagine the red tape which was unwound while
selecting the jury. Everything that ever pertained to
clauses of law was brought into question and motions
were made and turned down and attorneys argued
and Ne\ATnan and Birger cursed each other and Izzy
Hyland grinned until the whole thing became so dis-
gusting it was sickening.
Attorneys for Hyland asked each prospective jur-
or his opinion of secret orders, of Jews, and if he had
ever read the Dearborn Independent, the paper pub-
lished by Henry Ford opposing the Jews. The defense
attorney's at first turned down every one who was ex-
amined if he did not come up to their expectations as
how he should determine secret orders, Jews, gang-
sters and other things which no one thought of before
they were mentioned in the trial.
The spectre of the Ku Klux Klan was brought into
issue when defense attorneys for Hyland asked pros-
pective jurors as to their affiliation with secret orders,
religion, race and so on.
Defense attorneys for both Birger and Newman
said that neither of their clients would be allowed on
the stand as they were afraid that the defense of one
would tear down the defense of the other. If Birger
and Nevv^man could have been given a separate trial
they undoubtedly would have unloaded much on each
other. However Birger said that he had no unloading
to do and that he would tell nothing that Newman or
any one else had done. He also maintained his inno-
51
cence in the Adams murder and said he would prove it.
The state's attorney and assistants came out with
the statement, while the selection of the jury was going
on, that they were ready to combat any plea made by
any of the defense. From the questions asked the pros-
pective jurors, it seemed as if the defending attor-
neys would come out with a plea of self defense, in-
sanity or alibis for the defendants.
The possibility of an insanity plea being offered
in Birger's defense made its first actual appearance
officially late in the afternoon of July 11 when Attor-
ney Robert E. Smith for Birger began questioning
veniremen on their attitude toward insanity as a de-
fense plea to a charge of murder. He was taken up
almost instantly by State's Attorney Martin who point-
ed out to the veniremen that before a prisoner at bar
can offer a plea of insanity as defense, he must admit
the act with which he is charged. Smith made no ref-
erence to it as a possible defense after that during the
remainder of the afternoon.
Smith also questioned veniremen upon their atti-
tude toward self-defense should it be made an issue
in the trial. Such a plea would likewise make it nec-
essary for the defendant to admit the act charged, and
a plea of self defense in this case would be regarded
impossible since Birger was not charged with the
actual killing.
Alibis, the third defense to be used, was possibly
the strongest of the three and was used heavily. All
three defendants were preparing to prove their absence
from the scene of the killing at the time it occurred.
For Birger this could be no difficult task. Birger
could prove that he was on the Marion public square
52
talking to Arlie Bos well when the shots were fired that
killed Adams in West City.
Hyland said he would deny knowledge of the plot
to kill Adams and that he drove the car which carried
the Thomasson boys, Harry and Elmo, to the Adams
home. Hyland said he would offer several witnesses
in his behalf as would Newman to prove he was other
than where Thomasson said he was.
The writer will take time here to tell the reader
a few facts concerning the court room while the selec-
tion of the jury was going on:
The crowd which occupied every seat in the little
court room of the old Franklin county court house in
Benton in early July began to lose a little of its tena-
city in the swelter of the day as the trial wore on with
the attorneys questioning veniremen. Rotating fans
played a breeze of cool air occasionally upon the judge,
attorneys and jurors, but for the spectators back of
the bar railing, there was no relief from the heat.
Hearing was difficult, also, and the spectators in the
back of the room could do little more than watch the
pantomime going on before them as defendants moved
or lawyers made gestures of one sort or another, in
talking to the prospective jurors sitting in cane bot-
tom chairs upon a slightly raised platform in front of
the counsel tables.
Occasional}^ two, three or maybe a whole row of
spectators would get up and walk down the broad
center aisle to the steps that lead to the first floor of
the court house. Their places, however, were soon
filled as the deputy sheriffs at the front of the stairs
let just as many people ascend as had descended be-
fore them. No crowding was permitted, and no one
was allowed to ascend the stairs until the officers were
53
sure there was a vacant seat upstairs. At the head
of the stairway a short, heavy set Httle man partly gray
and partly bald, acted as usher, and he found the vacant
seats for those who were permitted to enter. Motion-
ing to the persons as they entered, he walked down the
aisle in front of them to their seats. In his right pocket
he carried a heavy revolver, the weight of which caus-
ed his trousers sag several inches lower on the right
than on the left. He was a busy man, this officer-
usher, and his job of guiding his ever shifting audience
did not stop until the court was over for the day.
Confusion was injected into that little court house
while the selection of the jury was going on when one
afternoon the newsboys with their papers were turned
loose upon the court yard below. "All about Charlie
Birger," was their loud cry and they cried it so loud
that the noise penetrated the court room and gave com-
petition to the voice of counsel. Attorney Robert
Smith of Birger's counsel petitioned the court to stop
the noise and Judge C. H. Miller dispatched Sheriff
James Pritchard below stairs to quell the uproar. The
sheriff evidently had his hands full as it was full
thirty minutes before the babel in the court yard
ceased.
During the first five days of the trial four jurors
were tentatively selected by both sides. They were
John Krugg, miner of Christopher; Marion Meeks,
miner, West Frankfort; Dave Whitledge, miner, of
West Frankfort and Dow Fisher, laborer, of Whitting-
ton. Sixty veniremen had been dismissed when these
four were chosen.
54
CHAPTER 12.
Chapter 12 Deals with the Talking of Millich; Also
More of the Adams Murder Trial at Benton.
Mrs. Nellie Worsham, mother of Lyle Worsham,
visited Rado Millich in jail at Marion, July 11, in hope
of getting some information that would lead to the
solution of her son^s mysterious death.
Millich knew Lyle, better known as *'Shag", and
Mrs. Worsham was assured by Millich that he would
give her the details of the slaying, who did it and for
what purpose it was done.
"Me going to die, Mrs. Worsham, and we will tell
you all," was the final promise offered to Mrs. Wor-
sham by Millich at that time.
Mrs4 Worsham carried a life insurance policy on
her son Lyle, but was never able to collect it, owing
to the demand of the insurance company for more
positive proof of the death of her son that had not then
been offered.
While Millich, in his numerous confessions gave
out the information that he knew all about the slaying
of Shag Worsham, his confession would not be accepted
by the insurance company.
While the jury was still being sought to try Bir-
ger, Newman and Hyland, rumors were afloat that
gangsters would try to rescue Millich from the Marion
jail where he was awaiting execution and that the
gangsters on trial in Benton would be rescued by
friends. As a result sharpshooters with highpowered
rifles and machine guns were placed on guard. At Ben-
ton seven extra sharpshooters with highpow^ered rifles
were added to the guard force.
From the time that ended the trial of Rado Millich
55
and Eural Gowan in connection with the murder of
Ward Jones, to July 14, 1927 $5,000 had been raised to
finance an appeal from the death sentence imposed by
Williamson county circuit court on Rado Millich for the
murder of Jones. A vigorous campaign was gone
through with in raising the funds for the appeal to
Judge Hartwell.
On July 14 a teriffic wind storm struck the court
house and vicinity and passed on without doing any
damage. Birger said, *'If the old building had been
wrecked, I'd be blamed for it. I've been blamed for al-
most everything else. I'm glad the old shack is
still standing."
On this same day an irate cov/ attempted to de-
stroy the tireless efforts of state and defense in
selecting a jury for the case. T^Irs. Charles R. Francis,
wife of one of the accepted jurors, hobbled into the
court room and appealed to Judge Charles H. Miller to
release her husband, as she had been disabled by a cow
that trampled her under its hoof. There was no one
to take care of the cow, she argued. The judge ex-
plained the necessity of keeping her husband in the
jury box.
"Your arguments are silly," she replied* ''Let me
see my husband". The husband was called into an
ante-room and they embraced. He agreed with the
judge. "All right," she replied in a tone of regret.
"I expected that so I brought your clothes. Goodbye."
The decision kept the second panel of four intact.
Art Newman, willing confessor of the bad deeds
of his former chieftain, Charlie Birger, on the 14th
day of July charged his co-defendant in the Adams
murder trial with another crime.
Newman said Birger furnished two pistols to a
man hired to shoot Robert R. Ward, president of the
56
Benton State Bank. The attempted assassination in
December, 1926, was unsuccessful, although four shots
were fired through the living room of Ward's home,
where the bank president was standing. The attack-
er escaped.
The man who hired the gunman to fire the shots,
according to Newman, was angry with Ward because
of a foreclosure deal.
Newman had excited newspapermen in the court
room with promises of "another startling confession,"
but it proved to be milder than his previous confessions
since the murder trial begun.
Birger, when told of the confession, merely
sneered, declaring "the next thing he will charge me
with having fired the shot that killed President McKin-
ley."
Newman said, in baring his latest confession of
Birger crimes, the gang chieftain loaned the guns to a
man who gave them to a negro to kill Ward. The fel-
low received one gun from Birger and one from Steve
George at Shady Rest. The fellow was called "Doc".
He wanted to let George do the kilKng but Birger didn't
want George to leave Shady Rest* Steve George and
wife were among those who were burned to death in
the destruction of Shady Rest.
On the 15th of July, just after the selection of
the jury had been completed, two of Chicago's most no-
torious gunmen, in company with a leading criminal
of southern Illinois of ten years' past, appeared at the
Birger trial. Their pesence, coupled with extra pre-
cautions taken by Sheriff Pritchard in stationing ex-
pert marksmen about the court, caused considerable
apprehension among some attending the trial, and all
were on their guard.
A pitiful figure in the courtroom was the elderly
57
mother of the slain man, who wept during the state-
ment of State's Attorney Martin. The prosecution
opened by asking death for all three of the defendants.
At this time, the 15th of July, Robert Torrese,
Charles Duchowski and Walter Taleski were hanged
from a triple gallows in the jail yard at Joliet, 111., for
the killing of Peter Klein, deputy warden of the peni-
tentiary there. The men weref hanged at dawn by the
sheriff. Each of the murderers went to their death
fearlessly. More than seven hundred persons wit-
nessed the hangings. Blood lust of the Roman arena
v/as pesent as the mob fought for vantage points to
view the death spectacle.
CHAPTER 13.
Chapter 13 Deals with the Beginning of the Adams
Murder Trail Just After the Selection of the Jury
Had Been Completed.
The selection of the jury in the Adams murder
case, in which Charlie Birger, Art Newman and Ray
Hyland were on trial for the murder of Mayor Joe
Adams of West City, was completed at 11:15 on the
morning of July 14, 1927, at Benton, Illinois.
The jurors were: John Krug, Christopher, farmer-
miner; Marion Meeks, West Frankfort, miner; Dave
Whitledge, West Frankfort, miner ; Dow Fisher, Whit-
tington, laborer; Charles R. Francis, West Frankfort
township, farmer-miner; L. A. Gunn, Cave township,
farmer; Paul Knight, Thompsonville, merchant, the
youngest man on the jury, being 26 years of age; F.
C. Downen, Thomsponville, farmer ; F. Marion Warren,
Eastern township, farmer; Wm. Hendricks, Christo-
58
pher, miner ; Milo Hopper, West Frankfort, miner and
Harry Simpson, West Frankfort auto salesman.
The last four 'men were accepted by the defense
after they had been tendered by the state following
but a few moments of questioning on the part of
defense counsel. Judge Charles H. Miller, before whom
the case was being tried, at once ordered the jury
sworn in.
With the selection of the jury completed after
more than four days of interrogation by the state and
defense counsel, the stage was cleared for the more
dramatic scenes that the trial was to present : Specta-
tors became much more interested. Newspapermen
got busy with their cameras and then court was re-
cessed until after the noon hour when Staters Attorney
Roy C. Martin made his opening plea. The defense
said they would make no statements until they
heard the prosecution give their complete outline so
they would know the nature of their defense better.
The prosecution had carefully endeavored to
select what is known as a "hanging jury." The de-
fense had been equally deliberate in an effort to select
a jury that would save the defendants from the gal-
lows.
In thundering tones, the state's attorney recited
the, murder story, as he was to present it to the jury,
going back to the day, when according to testimony
that the state was to present, the murder of Adams
was planned at Shady Rest. He went over the crime,
step by step, from the time the murder car left Shady
Rest accompanied by another car in which leaders of
the Birger gang were alleged to have accompanied the
killers as far as Marion.
The prosecuter spoke with grim resolution, as he
pictured the cruel, heartless manner in which the mur-
59
der of Joe Adams was planned and executed. He
charged that Charlie Birger, Art Newman and Connie
Hitter, the latter under indictment at that time and
and also a fugitive from justice, planned the crime and
paid Harry and Elmo Thomasson for firing the shots
that killed Adams, known to have been the friend of
the Sheltons, bitter enemies of Birger. The State's
Attorney charged that Ray Hyland drove the car and
shared equally with the Thomassons in the division of
the blood money with which they were paid for the suc-
cess of their murderous mission.
None of the Sheltons were at the trial or in Ben-
ton as Sheriff Pritchard wrote them saying that he did
not want them near Benton while the trial was going
on. They promised him that they would stay away.
The prosecutor said that he would not introduce the
confession of Harry Thomasson, who was serving a life
sentence at the Chester penitentiary for his part in the
crime. Thomasson was placed on the stand as a wit-
ness, however, and through his testimony and that of
more than a hundred other witnesses, Martin hoped to
end the crime career of Birger and his gangsters by
placing the noose around the necks of Birger, Newman
and Hyland.
Martin first recited the indictment charging the
trio on trial and Connie Ritter and Harry Thomasson
with the murder of Adams.
It was Thomasson's confession that resulted in
the indictment of the others.
"The evidence in this case ^\dll show that Joe
Adams never was a member of a gang or had any
connection with the gang," Martin said.
'The evidence will show that Newman and Hy-
land were associated with Birger at Shady Rest at the
time Joe Adams was killed."
60
"It will show Charlie Birger became very angry at
Joe Adams on or about Oct. 15, 1926 for some unknown
reason. It will show that about this time Birger,
Newman and Hyland rode up in two automobiles loaded
with machine guns and told Adams 'You big doughbelly
we are going to kill you.' "
Martin said Adams had appealed for protection
but it was not furnished. Adams then had some men
at his home for protection and Birger charged that he
was harboring the Shelton gang.
*'Birger often declared that Franklin county was
not big enough to keep him from killing Adams," Mar-
tin continued. "This was at a time when Franklin
county had a special guard in West City to keep mem-
bers of both the Birger and Shelton gangs out of this
county."
Martin continued by telling the jury of the threats
made to Gus Adams and Mrs. Joe Adams that Birger
and his gang was coming over to kill Joe. He continued
to shout at the jury that he would hang the defendants.
"We have picked you to kill Joe Adams," Birger
told them, according to Martin. He then described
how the boys told Ne\\Tnan they hadn't killed anyone
before . He described the writing of the note which
was used as a ruse to get Adams to this front door and
the actions of Hyland as the driver of the death car.
Birger, the state's attorney said, forced Elmo Thomas-
son to stay at Shady Rest that night when the boy$
asked that they be allowed to go home. Birger threat-
ened Harry, Martin charged, that if he didn't return
the next day the gang would come and get him.
Martin then detailed how the boys and Hyland
were furnished with guns and given whiskey the next
day, — Dec. 1926 — the day of the murder.
The courtroom was deathly silent. Not one of
61
the four hundred spectators madd a sound. The
women, who comprised almost a third of the audience,
waved palm leaf fans as they leaned forward to hear
Martin.
Mrs. Birger tapped her fan nervously against the
back of a chair in front of her as the state's attorney
continued his outline of the case.
Martin went through the entire details and de-
manded the death sentence. Birger looked more nerv-
ous than he did at the beginning of the selection of
the jury. This time Birger was facing the law of the
state of Illinois — and without the use of machine guns
and armored trucks. As time wore on the attention at-
tracted throughout the country was unimaginable. A
fight to the finish had been prepared by both sides. It
was rumored at the trial that an assistant of Clarence
Darrow of Chicago, noted criminal lawyer, would assist
in the appeal of Rado Millich at Marion who was con-
victed of the murder of Ward Jones. Should Millich's
appeal fail he would then be sentenced and hanged.
Millich's appeal to the circuit court of Williamson
county was turned down. He was sentenced to hang
on Oct. 24, 1926.
CHAPTER 14.
Chapter 14 Deals with the Taking of Evidence in the
Adams Murder Trial After the Opening State-
ments to the Court and to the Jury.
On the morning of July 15, 1927, State's Attorney
Roy C. Martin started weaving the net of evidence
by which he expected to be able to send Charlie Birger,
Newman and Hyland to the gallows for the murder of
Joe Adams.
62
The first witness introduced in the state's effort
to establish the guilt of Birger, Newman and Hyland
and his former aids was Sheriff James Pritchard. He
was followed by Sheriff Oren Coleman of Williamson
county.
Pinkney Thomasson, 17, brother of Harry and
Elmo, supplied the first evidence for the state which
made their case look strong. His replies were clear
and strong and he was an ideal witness. Through his
testimony the state brought out that Ray Hyland was
with Elmo and Harry Thomasson on the day of the
Adams murder.
Roy Adams and wife, distant relatives of the slain
man, told the first direct story of the killing of Joe
Adams. They were out walking on the afternoon of
the murder and 's^itnessed the shooting. They told of
tw^o youths passing them on the sidewalk. The first
testimony given in the trial w^as more damaging to
Hyland than to Newman and Birger.
Birgers attorneys at this time came out with the
news that Birger would take the stand later in the trial
in the defense of himself.
Aviator Admits Dropping Bomb on Shady Rest.
On July 16, it was asserted that Elmer Kane, 26-
year-old aviator, had confessed that he was hired to
bomb the road house of Charlie Birger, near Marion.
Police of Waterloo, Iowa, said they had a signed
statement from Kane to the effect that he was induced
by Mayor Joe Adams of West City and Carl and Bernie
Shelton, to undertake to blow up the Birger fortress
from the air..
He said he was paid §1,000 and given an automo-
bile for his work. The bombs were prepared at the
home of Gus Adams in West City, according to the
confession, and plans for the raid were made there.
63
A member of the Shelton gang, unnamed in the
confession, threw the bombs from the plane while
Kane piloted it, it was said.
Shady Rest was bombed Nov. 12, 1926. Three
bombs were dropped, two of them failing to explode
and a third missing the target. None was injured.
Gus Adams, brother of Joe, declared that he knew
no one by the name of Elmer Kane and nothing of the
transactions which were declared to have taken place
in his home in connection with the aerial bombing of
Shady Rest.
At the opening of the trial many witnesses pointed
out Hyland as the man who drove a Chrysler automo-
bile to Joe Adams' home just as he was killed.
Birger was drawn into the case during the testi-
mony in the afternoon of the 16th when witnesses told
of the gang leader having openly threatened the life of
the West City mayor. Waddell True, who said he
operated a barbecue stand and sold home brew at West
City, and Gus Adams, supplied the first direct testi-
mony against Birger, when they told of the gang
leader announcing that "I am going to kill that dough
bellied and all the law in
Franklin county can't keep me ircm it."
True said Birger came into his place with a num-
ber of men, all heavily armed, and ordered him to in-
form the officers that he (Birger) was going to kill
Adams.
True said he told Birger that he would carry no
messages, but that when Birger ''jammed his machine
gun in my guts and said *yes you will,' " he agreed to
carry the message.
True also told of overhearing a telephone con-
versation between Birger and Adams, in which Bir-
ger told the corpulent mayor he was coming over to
64
get him. He said Adams protested, asking Birger
what it was all about and urging him to ''let's fix this
up."
As True related the incident when Birger's
machine gun changed his mind about carrying Birger's
message, Birger laughed with the crowd, evidently
appreciating as much as anyone the situation in
which True told of having been placed.
Gus Adams told of Birger and his men visiting
the Adams home one day and with a gang of men
keeping^Adams covered with rifles cursed the mayor
and said they would kill him.
Mrs. Marshall Jones, a tall, straight w^oman who
sat stiffly in the witness chair despite her 61 years,
held the courtroom motionless for thirty minutes while
she told of the slaying of Adams, her son. She was
in the Adams home w^hen the mayor was shot down
at his front door.
Her story was one of fear. She told of spending
the night of December 11 at the Adams home in
company with her husband, their daughter, Adams,
his wife and their daughter. They sat up all night
she said, because they were afraid to go to sleep.
''Joe" had been threatened by Birger, the bad
man from Harrisburg.
When dawn came they felt relieved and Joe and
his father-in-law lay down to sleep. "Joe" had been
ill and spent the day in bed, although he did not un-
dress. The day was uneventful until 4 p. m.
Then there was a knock at tlie door, and her
daughter-in-law answered it. Tw^o young men with a
note were outside. They asked for Adams and he
was called out to see them. "Joe said something to
them," Mrs. Jones said haltingly. "I didn't catch what
65
it was. Then he started to read the note. When he
took his eyes off them they shot him.'' ''Joe fell and
they ran."
Mrs. Jones said that the mayor was a man hound-
ed by enemies against whom he had shown no cause
for enmity and forced to sit up at night to guard his
home. Much pity for the elderly lady was shown as
she tendered the last statement regarding the passing
of the mayor of West City.
When word was received in Franklin county of the
confession of Elmer Kane who said he bombed the
Birger roadhouse from the air. State's Attorney
Boswell of Williamson county wired the officials in
Iowa who were holding Kane to relea^se him. Boswell
said he was not worrying who bombed the hut and
would not play into the hands of the defense in
Franklin county. Boswell said that if he wanted to
question Kane they would pick him up again after
the trial in Benton was over.
Rado Millich's attorneys at this time were work-
ing hard to raise more funds to carry an appeal to
the supreme court for Millich. If this should fail
Millich was to hang on October 24, 1927, a year from
the time he killed Ward Jones.
Attorney Robert E. Smith, chief counsel for Bir-
ger and his former henchmen's defense, only July 18,
tried to weaken the evidence of the state by a rapid
cross examination of David Garrison.
Garrison, a youth doing time at the reformatory
at Pontiac, told from the witness stand of an attempt
on the part of Birger to hire him and Alva Wilson to
"go to the door of a West City man and shoot him."
Garrison told a clean-cut story of the incident on
the occasion of one of four visits to Shady Rest,
66
where he stopped, the witness said, to **get a shot of
liquor." Garrison said Birger told the boys he had a
plan for them to make some easy money.
"What do you think I am — a damn fool," Garrison
said he replied to Birger's offer of $100 for the kill-
ing."
Smith opened with rapid fire thrusts. "You are a
member of the Shelton gang, aren't you," he tore into
the witness that brought back a line of rapid-fire re-
sponses from the witness.
"You were driving a stolen car when you went to
Shady Rest, weren't you ?" Smith shouted at Garrison.
"Yes," the witness shot back, without a sign of un-
easiness.
"How do you know that it was on December 8 that
Charlie Birger made you the offer which you have
just told?"
"Because I pulled a job at Albion the next night,
and got caught. That is why I am at Pontiac."
The witness did not deviate from his story during
the grilling cross-examination. Alva Wilson told the
same story as Garrison of the offer made by Birger.
He told Birger he would steal (but not kill.
On July 19, 1927, Harry Thomasson, star state
witness, was called to the witness stand. He took
the stand after a delayed conference of defense attor-
neys and admitted killing Adams for Birger. He told
the story as Newman and others against Birger told
it. The state expected to finish their case 'soon after.
The testimony of Harry Thomasson, the killer of
Adams, was the most damaging of the entire group
of witnesses for the state. As his story progressed
the judge had deputies move near him and the very
tenseness of the court room could be felt. As he told
67
his story there was a silence so still' as to be almost
audible. He went through the entire story without a
quiver and when cross examined, did not falter at any
time. It seemed as if the noose was drawing near to
Birger, Hyland and Newman. The testimony of
Thomasson was damaging to all three defendants.
Following the testimony of Thomasson, Sheriff
Pritchard and other witnesses testified and the state
rested its case. Defense attorneys were at a loss, it
seemed, to decide what they would do. The court was
surprised when defense attorneys asked for a new
jury. This appeal was denied them.
The gangland trio it was rumored would take the
stand in their own defense. Then came the startling
episode. Defense attorneys came forward with the
statement that the defendants would not take the
stand nor would any other witness for them take the
stand. The defense attorneys said they would argue
the case with the state attorneys, make their pleas
and leave the rest to the jury. The general public
thought the noose much nearer to the gangsters. The
case was then rested.
The statement of Newman, that he would not tesi-
fy came as a surprise. His decision caused expressions
of astonishment on the faces of Birger and Hyland.
Then came the decision that none of them or their
witnesses would testify.
Following the decision of the three defendants not
to take the witness stand in, their own defense the at-
torneys for both sides made their concluding pleas.
The attorneys for the defense pleaded for mercy and
tried to lessen the weight of the evidence given by
star state witnesses.
State's Attorney Roy Martin and his assistant
68
pleaded for the death sentence for the three defend-
ants. The plea made by Martin was a great one and
following it the judge instructed the jury and it retir-
ed to the jury room for a verdict. The jury seemed
indifferent all the way.
CHAPTER 15.
Chapter 15 Deals with the Result of the Trial of Birger,
Hyland and Newman.
After deliberating 22 1-2 hours, the jury in the
Adams mudrer trial at Benton, 111 ,, returned their ver-
dict to Judge Charles H. Miller.
Charlie Birger was sentenced to hang for the
crimxe, being found guilty by the jury and his punish-
ment fixed at death. He took the sentence stoically
and seemed little perturbed. However, his sister show-
ed signs of emotion.
Ray Hyland was also found guilty of the charge
and his sentence fixed at imprisonment for the rest
of his natural life. He seemed little shaken and
was evidently glad that he was not to be hanged. A
woman in the court room said he was her son who
had been missing for years. She went into hysterics
when the sentence was read. Hyland turned pale
but said nothing.
Art Newman received the same punishment as
Hyland, life imprisonment. He showed little concern
over the verdict. The general public was pleased with
the verdict. Attorneys for the defense said they
vrould appeal the case for new trial and if not
granted would go to the state supreme court.
When the case went to the jury Hyland said to
Birger, "The end is near," and Birger affirmed the
69
jstatement with a nod of his head. Hyland then said,
**It looks like a necktie party for someone." Birger
remained silent.
After the verdict and sentences were read it was
learned that at one time the jury was in favor of
death for all three with the exception of two votes,
the vote being 10 to 2. The decision that all three
defendants were guilty was gained early. The remain-
der of the time was given' to affixing the punishment.
CHARLIE BIRGER.
A slender strip of a man, 44 years old and en-
dowed with a magnetic personality, has caused the
people of the state of .Illinois more nights of sleepless
worry and the citizens of the lower half of the state
more damage than any one individual has ever caused
a commonwealth.
Seemingly unconscious, and at the least unworried
by the turmoil he aroused, he has gone about his ne-
farious mission of settling his troubles and imaginary
grievances by the enlistment of what he calls "a gang
of punks," arming them with machine guns, placing
them in, armored cars and sending them forth to defy
his enemies and the law.
But he has come to the end of his rope. He had
gone as far as he could. He had finally discovered the
law is bigger than any man, and that those who come
or remain after him will laugh at his folly rather than
praise his daring. Charlie Birger was done for —
after the trial for the killing of Joe Adams.
Where to class Charlie Birger is a problem diffi-
cult for those who know him best. Those who did not
have his personal acquaintance could easily class him
70
as a heartless killer, void of a conscience or the least
regard as to the value of human life.
But acquaintance with the wary gangster seems
to change these opinions in a marked degree. Re-
membering that he is a hardened criminal who has
killed and robbed and looted, there is something back
of it all that tells one that perhaps somewhere there
is a good trait or two, not enough to overshadow the
baser things if his life, but something unexplainable
that touches in a spot, that will, if you are not careful,
temper your opinions.
This "unexplainable something" has made him a
leader of men. True the men he has led have been a
type that were of inferior breeding and intellect, but
it is not unreasonable to believe that if he had directed
his mind and ability toward a legitimate, business
career, there is no limit to the things he might have
accomplished.
But he chose a different route. Some would call
it the primrose poth. He elected to exert his energies
toward the establishment of a little kingdom of his
own. He placed himself on the throne, he named his
ministry, his captains and his lieutenants and declared
himself to the world.
Birger, his attorneys say, was born in or near
New York, and came to St. Louis when quite young,
growing to manhood there. He served in the Spanish-
American war and was a pensioner of the United States
government, he told newspaper men.
He came into Franklin county and landed in
Christopher where he was known as a gambler. He
went to Harrisburg where he built up a wide acquaint-
ance among gamblers, bootleggers, touts and criminals.
71
Business men, professional men and people of a re-
spectable class were his acquaintances and friends.
His name first came into prominence in southern
Illinois, when he ''shot it out" with Whitey Doering, a
St. Louis gangster, at a joint at Halfway in Williamson
county. Doering died, but Birger recovered.
While he was fast to make friends and acquaint-
ances, he made as many enemies. Me soon had men
gunning for him and he was gunning for them. But
those things were little thought of. Those were per-
sonal grudges of the underworld that rarely came
within the pale of the law until one of the men fell a
victim of the other's vengeance.
Birger moved on in this channel. Gambling and
bootlegging, going and coming in the element with
which he felt most at ease. People generally heard
but little of him, and knew less.
Then he conceived the idea of a chain of road
houses. He saw an opportunity to ''clean up" at booze
running and operating slot machines. He might or
might not have had some understanding as to the kind
of protection he w^ould have from the law. At any
rate he began operations.
He acquired a tract of some sixty acres of land on
State Highway No. 13, midway between Harrisburg
and Marion. There he erected a small barbecue stand,
cleared the rubbish and underbrush from a wooded
plot nearby and erected an enticing sign near the en-
trance: "Sixty Acres of Free Camping Ground."
This free camp came to be the site of the infamous
cabin that was known throughout the United States as
"Shady Rest," the palace of King Birger, the capital of
gangland — the eyesore of a nation.
No one will ever know whether or not it v*'as
72
Charlie Birger's plan to raise an army and declare a
state of gang war when he laid out that camp site and
built his cabin.
He might have only had an idea of a place to
make his headquarters for his chain of road houses.
Or he might have had in mind just the thing that
resulted — a stronghold and fortress where he could
surround himself with gunmen and issue his defiance
of the law.
Birger, luring the days following his first arrest,
talked freely of gangland, and his version then of
what constitutes a gangster leaves the intimation that
he has a certain horror for the warriors in his army,
detesting their criminal instincts, but yet catering to
their whims so that he might use them to whatever
advantage he saw fit.
"A man who will get into a gang is just a no-good
punk,'* Birger said then. '"The men who came to me
were ignorant, uneducated, lowbred scum. If they
hadn't been like this they would never have been
gangsters."
Then there is another question. What drew these
men to Birger? His personality of leadership prob-
ably had its part and the desire to be a **bad man" like
Birger, drew some. Others came for protection from
the law, and some saw possibilities of easy money and
little work.
Women had their part in helping to recruit the
Birger army when some bitter rival made it so hot for
the man who was winning the affection of his "sweet
mama" that the protection of the cabin was paid for
by tl)e sacrfice of the rights a man has to call his soul
his own.
Rival gangsters drove others to the protecting
73
portals of Birger's cabin, and each new day saw some
new face within the circle of men who banded them-
selves together by a code of the underworld.
The daily and nightly parades of armored cars
and highpowered motor cars bearing every implement
of modern warfare led thru a half dozen southern
Illinois counties. Pillaging, burning, robbing, killing,
the gang went on, gaining in power and offering a
new red-lettered page for the history of Little Egypt
for each new day.
Driven to the protection of Birger, Art Newman,
former friend of the Shelton gang, came to be one of
the trusted lieutenants at Shady Rest. The diminutive
soldier of fortune who resents the name ^'Gangster,"
was a crack crapshooter, gambler, high-powered boot-
legger and whiskey runner, before he took up with the
Shady Rest outfit.
He admitted his shrewdness with the dice and is
believed to have harbored the secret ambition of some
day leading a mutiny that would place him on the
throne of Birger.
Any way he went along. He helped in the plan-
ning and the execution of big and little jobs and as a
result he was picked up and tried with Birger for the
murder of Joe Adams. He blames his luck and pleads
the story of Old Dog Tray for having landed in the
"clutches of this horrible gang." But he is there.
Ray Hyland came to Birger's hut, more as a lark
or adventure. He didn't know what he wanted to do,
nor didn't care much. He was a happy-go-lucky, care-
free man who had nothing at stake and was willing to
take what came.
They called him "Izzy the Jew," but he tells you he
is no more Jew than Irish, and laughs it off. They
74
wanted him to drive the Thomasson boys to the scene
of the Joe Adams murder, and he did. Perhaps he was
compelled to do this to save his own hide, or perhaps
he displayed a willingness to have a part in the
"bumping off" of the corpulent West City Mayor.
The murder committed in Franklin county was
the beginning of the end. The threats that the **damn-
ed little Franklin county law" couldn*t keep them from
kilHng Joe Adams proved true enough. But that
same little law has put a stop to their further mur-
derous activities for all time to come.
They made one false step too many. They failed
to reckon with Roy Martin, later heralded as the state's
most fearless prosecutor. Martin answered their dare
with a warrant that held Birger for the death of
Adams because someone testified at an inquest that
they knew of Birger making threats against Adams.
Anxious days passed and after overcoming many
obstacles thrown in his way. Sheriff James Pritchard
succeeded in landing King Charlie in the Benton jail.
At that time it would have been a weak case, but Mar-
tin was not satisfied to go before a jury with that
evidence — that is not his style.
He began a more thorough investigation. With
the big chief in jail people talked more and more. They
were less afraid of his machine gun and his armored
truck. Slender threads were picked up here and
there by the prosecutor and before long, and before
anyone was aware of what was going on, a new grand
jury had been called, a new indictment had been re-
turned, and Birger, who had been liberated under
bonds in the sum of $42,000 on the first charge was
picked up again, before he knew what was coming.
He was placed in jail again. Then his jet black
75
hair began to turn grey. More of his confederates
started talking and the net tightened inch by inch on
up until the time of the trial, when the mass of evi-
dence piled up by the **damned little Franklin county
law" proved too great for him to attempt to overcome
by offering any evidence in his own defense.
Newman hasn't stood hitched since he has been in
the toils of the law. He has told a lot of things on his
former chief and would probably have told more on the
witness stand if he had not been afraid that Birger
would have unloaded on him.
It has been different with Hyland. He has never
had the happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care smile taken
from his face. He has joked with reporters about the
probability of his having his neck stretched, but he
did not break with his chief. He offered his neck
as a target for the hangman's noose if it be necessary.
In the words of his attorney who pleaded for
mercy in his closing arguments to the jury: "He is
willing to die with those who have been his friends.''
Since the arrest of Birger his gang has scattered
and gone. Many of the members are too in the toils of
the law, and most of the others are fugitives from jus-
tice. The army that stood by him in his defiance of
the law has left him like rats leaving a sinking ship.
Freddie Wooten, Riley Simmons, Rado Millich,
Danny Brown, Harry Thomasson, Clarence Rone, Har-
vey Dungy, Art Newman, Ray Hyland and Birger
himself have all felt the arm of the law, and have
either been sentenced or are awaiting trial for some
crime or another.
Steve George, Elmo Thomasson, Ward Jones,
Shag Worsham and Jimmy Stone have been knocked
76-^
off and their deaths are being cleared up by the de-
velopments following the arrests of gangmen.
Connie Ritter, Frankie Schorer, Leslie Simpson,
Jack Crews, Oklahoma Slim, Ernest Balleau and others
of lesser importance are at this time in July, 1927, still
at large.
Charlie Birger is regarded by some as a shrewd
man, but he has not demonstrated it. With the cun-
ning he has displayed in dominating the gangsters of
his realm, he surely knew that he could not go on for-
ever defying every law known to man.
Was he too engrossed with the idea of putting his
enemy gangsters out of the way to take heed of the
law, or was he so enamored of his own power that he
thought the law would never bring him to justice?
The way he press-agented his plans of killing his
enemy Carl Shelton and others who had crossed his
path gives rise to the belief that his insane desire to
spill human blood overpowered his faculty of reasoning
that the law would eventually have its way.
After the Adams trial several papers stated that
attorneys for the three defendants said that the gang-
sters admitted to them that they were guilty. The
attorneys and gangsters denied every bit of it.
CHAPTER 16.
Conclusion Telling of Sentence of Birger. Reward
Offered for Connie Ritter.
Judge Miller denied Birger another trial in the
circuit court and sentenced him to hang on October 15,
1927. Birger's only hope left was an appeal to the
supreme court of Illinois.
77
Following is the sentence placed on Birger by the
court :
**It is the sentence of the Court that you, Charlie
Birger, between the hours of 10 o'clock in the forenoon
and 2 o'clock in the afternoon, on Saturday, the fifteen-
th day of October, be hanged by the neck until dead,
and may God have mercy on your soul."
These remarks by the Court prompted Birger to
change his mind and make a statement. His state-
ment will follow shortly in another paragraph, conclud-
ing this narrative of the greatest gangster known in
southern Illinois and one of the greatest the United
States has ever known.
Along about this time, late in July, 1927, the law
in Franklin county renewed its search for Connie Rit-
ter, also indicted for the murder of Joe Adams. Ritter,
it was rumored, had gone south and then had crossed
the ocean into Europe. Ritter was the "sporty guy" of
the Birger gang and was paymaster for Birger. He
was said to have paid the Thomasson boys and Ray
Hyland for their part in the Adams murder.
The supervisors of Franklin county offered a re-
ward of $1,000 for the arrest of Ritter. He was also
a figure in the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Price of Mar-
ion, it was rumored.
When Judge Charles H. Miller sentenced Birger
he made a very beautiful speech to the gang leader and
following it and the reading of the sentence Birger
made a five minute talk to the court.
Following is the court reporter's record of Char-
lie Birger's remarks to court upon being sentenced to
death :
"Your Honor, that was a very nice talk and I have
78
listened to you. You have the impression on your mind
that I wanted to be chief.
"When I was marked up to be killed since eight
men drove up in a Cadillac automobile and were look-
ing for me, and asked for Charlie Birger.
"I called on the state's attorney for protection;
and called in Staters Attorney Boswell, of Williamson
county for protection and also on the Sheriff of Sa-
line county for protection. I was by myself and had
to go out and get three negroes to help protect me.
"It never was in my heart to kill anybody. I want
the public to get a different impression on it. I wanted
to keep down the robbing and stealing. I took care of
the boys around there — my meat bill ran from $130
to $140 a month.
*'This man Newman, I wouldn't believe at all.
There is a man that was the cause of a woman's death.
For myself I don't care — ^just for my two children.
"Mr. Martin cannot deny that I called on him for
protection.
"I laid out in the weeds for nights and days — at
one time for seven days and nights I did not have my
clothes off. It was never in my heart to be chief, or to
kill anybody. I don't want to kill. There is a man,
John Rogers, that came to my house. Him and New-
man has conspired and condemned me. If I had been
on the jury trying any man in this courthouse, I would
have given anybody else the same verdict the jury
gave me. Mr. Martin knowns down in that evidence
that lots of it was framed up. I never did make any
confession. I have been shut. I haven't said anything.
"There is a woman, Mrs. Newman that was the
cause of Mrs. Price's death. I will tell you more of it
and tell you who killed those people. As far as the
79
cabin that was blown up. I was in Dowell and this
was the first man (points to Newman) that brought
this news to me. I know who bio wed up the cabin-
two men and two women that stayed at Mt. Vernon,
the night the cabin was blown up. I will give Martin
credit for one thing — ^that he has brought justice. I
don't want to go down in history and be blamed for it.
The night that Price was killed I can prove this man
Newman was intoxicated and throwed a gun on me.
I can prove all this. He was not scared of men, or no
other man. I was in Herrin with him one time and he
took nine guns from 60 men. He was as busy as a
bumble bee in that crowd and came to me and handed
me the nine guns. I can prove that by 20 people. I
don't want to go down in history as a chief. After I
was marked to die, Carl Shelton and I got together
and shook hands. I don't want any sympathy because
I did not leave the country — ^that is the mistake I am
going to pay for."
THE END
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